Newman Huo
POTALA Palace and Makye Ame Restaurant are two contrasting faces of Lhasa, which show the lofty and romantic sides of the capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region. This is the impression I was left with after visiting the two places during my eight-day trip to Tibet this June.
Lhasa means “sacred land” in Tibetan, and Potala Palace, the architectural wonder in the center of Lhasa, is the symbol of that sacred land.
Potala Place is lofty not only because of its location on the Red Hill, but also the special, important role it plays in the spiritual life of Tibetan Buddhists.
Standing on the top of the Red Hill, about 130 meters above the Lhasa valley, Potala Palace rises a further 115.7 meters and covers an area of more than 36 hectares.
The palace consists of the Red Palace and the White Palace. The Red Palace is the central building and gets its name from being painted red. The White Palace is connected to the Red Palace from the east, west and south sides, with whitewashed walls.
The palace’s name was probably derived from Mount Potala, the mythological mountain abode in southern India of Bodhisattva Chenresi, of whom the Dalai Lama is believed to be a reincarnation.
The palace was first constructed by the Tibetan king Soongtsan Gampo in the seventh century when he married Princess Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty.
The king had 999 rooms built on the Red Hill for his bride, but many of them were damaged in upheavals that resulted from later battles for power.
The construction of the present palace began in 1645 during the reign of the fifth Dalai Lama. The White Palace was completed in 1648 as the living quarters for the Dalai Lama and Buddhist monks. After his death, a 13-storied Red Palace was added to hold the golden Stupa Tomb of the fifth Dalai Lama.
In addition to the body of the Dalai Lama, the tomb is also said to house precious relics of Sakyamuni as well as a marble elephant’s head.
Today, the Red Palace also houses the Stupa Tombs of the seventh to 13th Dalai Lamas. The sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso (1683-1703) disappeared from the palace and was documented to have died in Qinghai Province in 1703.
Today, the palace remains one of Tibet’s major destinations for pilgrims visiting the tombs of past Dalai Lamas. It draws thousands of Tibetan pilgrims each day.
After my arrival in the city in the midsummer twilight of June 20 , I caught my first sight of the palace. The palace with its immense size and height made me very excited as I looked at it from a taxicab that day.
I made a special visit to the palace June 27 after sightseeing at Nyingchi and Mount Qomolangma.
On the evening of June 26, when I went to the People’s Square in front of the palace to take photos, I found a good position by a pond in a park beside the square to take a panoramic shot.
The next morning I spent an hour beside the pond enjoying the tranquil view of the palace at sunrise.
Then, walking through the People’s Square and across Beijing Central Road in front of the palace, I joined the flow of Tibetan pilgrims walking along the three-meter-tall wall surrounding the foot of the Red Hill.
It took me about an hour to finish one circuit of the palace. While examining the palace from different angles, I watched Tibetan pilgrims moving scripture barrels placed along the wall, and burning incense.
When I walked back to Beijing Central Road, I saw many Tibetans prostrating themselves on the roadside, kowtowing towards the place.
I was deeply moved as I saw two Tibetan men practicing the ritual of “long kowtows.” After walking one step, the two pilgrims knelt down, prostrated themselves on the road and then got up. They kept repeating the motions all the way.
Judging from the protective gear they were wearing on their hands and knees, they had traveled a great distance to get here.
When I got to the southern entrance gate, I was told the Tibetan government was rationing the number of entrance tickets to visitors, to protect the palace, with just 1,600 tickets for group tourists and 700 for individuals available.
Individual travelers also have to book their tickets a day beforehand at a price of 100 yuan per ticket. I was also told tourists were only allowed to visit a limited number of rooms in the palace and could stay inside for no more than an hour.
After returning to Lhasa from a tiring four-day trip to Mount Qomolangma, I decided to have a good meal on the eve of June 26. I chose Makye Ame Restaurant on the southeastern corner of the Barkhor Bazaar in Lhasa because it is popular with young tourists from all over the world.
“Makye Ame” means “unmarried pretty girl” in Tibetan. The establishment of the three-story restaurant in 1997 was inspired by a beautiful story relating to the sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso.
After taking a seat at a table on the second floor of the restaurant, I read a story on the first page of the menu.
The story began with poetic lines: “Rising from the highest mountaintop/ is the bright and glamorous moon/ It reminds me of the smile of Makye Ame/ which shines in the depths of my heart.”
The poem was said to have been written by Tsangyang Gyatso, who caught sight of a stunningly beautiful girl after stealing out of Potala Palace one evening and drinking at a wine shop at the Barkhor Bazaar.
Later, he returned in disguise to the shop several times, but never saw the girl again.
Today, nobody knows for sure whether the story is true or not. But the wine shop, which the sixth Dalai Lama is said to have frequented, has become famous with travelers to Tibet from home and abroad.
