White Residence, Red Reliquary - Power and Prayer on the Mountain
Anyone who's seen pictures of Lhasa in Tibet is familiar with the Potala Palace, even if they don't know its name. It's the large palace complex on top of Marpo Ri (Red Hill).
It was the traditional winter residence of the Dalai Lamas from the 17th century until the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959.
There are two main architectural blocks, the White Palace and the Red Palace. The White is governmental and residential. The Red is religious, filled with chapels and stupas. It’s basically two interlocked palaces.
Like a medieval cathedral, the Potala Palace is a cumulative work. Whole books have been written on its evolving construction and the timeline of its growth. I'll cover a few points here.
Why a winter palace?
Lhasa was the seat of government, but the Dalai Lama did not reside in the Potala year-round. During the warmer part of the year, the Dalai Lama and his government moved to the Norbulingka, the much greener and more open "Jewel Park" on the western side of Lhasa, returning to the Potala in the autumn.
The contrast between the two is striking. The Potala is a gigantic fortress-monastery-palace perched on a rocky hill. It is monumental, enclosed, steep, and intensely ceremonial. The Norbulingka developed from the 18th century as a summer palace surrounded by gardens, trees, ponds, and relatively spacious grounds. So "winter palace" can be misleading. The Potala was not simply a seasonal home. It was also a seat of government and one of the great religious and ceremonial centers of Tibet.
Tibetan tradition associates Marpo Ri with King Songtsen Gampo, the great imperial-era Tibetan ruler, who built a palace there centuries before the present Potala. The structure readers see today is much later, but that earlier association gives the hill a political and sacred history reaching back toward the Tibetan Empire.
The Fifth Dalai Lama began construction on the present Potala in 1645. Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, the "Great Fifth," had recently consolidated political authority over Tibet. Building this enormous palace above Lhasa was therefore not merely an architectural project. It made the new union of religious and temporal authority visible on the landscape.
But the Great Fifth died in 1682, before the Red Palace existed. His regent, Sangye Gyatso, concealed his death for years. It was not publicly announced until 1697. During that time of concealment, Sangye Gyatso built the Red Palace, the religious half of the complex. One of its central monuments is the Fifth Dalai Lama's enormous funerary stupa.
The man who began the Potala had become part of the building. But it was his regent, working in secret, who built the room around him.
Works Cited
“The Fifth Dalai Lama.” The Treasury of Lives,
https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/biography/6065. Accessed 21 Sept. 2026.
“Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre, UNESCO,
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/707. Accessed 21 Sept. 2026.
“Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa: Advisory Body Evaluation.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre, UNESCO,
https://whc.unesco.org/document/154063. Accessed 21 Sept. 2026.
“Norbulingka Project.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre, UNESCO,
https://whc.unesco.org/document/1118. Accessed 21 Sept. 2026.
