20251015 Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 11 – Lhasa, Tibet - Potala Palace

Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 11 – Lhasa, Tibet - Potala Palace - That sure looks steep

First off, oops. Closing yesterday's blog, I mentioned that today, we would attend a Sichuan Opera. I was wrong. That will be tomorrow. I've updated yesterday's post to correct that.

Today's adventure in Tibet took us to the Potala Palace. The Potala Palace was first built around 635 AD by Songtsen Gampo, the 33rd Tibetan king. The Fifth Dalai Lama decided to rebuild and expand the original Potala Palace, completing the White Palace by 1649. Potala Palace served as the winter palace for the Dalai Lama until 1959, when he fled to India due to increased tension with the Chinese. Today, it is occupied by a small group of monks charged with the upkeep of the palace. Monks from other monasteries make pilgrimages here to assist. They are also copying some of the Dalai Lama's writing from decaying texts onto more archival materials.

Arriving at Potala Palace

The Eastern Gate is for groups - when we were done, the line at the main gate for individuals was extremely long

Our view of the full palace from inside the gate

A map of the huge complex

The white sections, or White Palace, served as the living quarters and government office for past Dalai Lamas; the Red Palace is the spiritual center of the palace and contains burial stupas of past Dalai Lamas, Buddhist artifacts, and scriptures

The red palace portion

This friendly monk wanted a photo with us and was cool with me taking a selfie with him - another monk joined in for many more photos with our group

At this point, we separated from our group. You can see how high the palace is. While our guide, Oliver, said that the steps were small, there were 360 steps to reach the top. With how the altitude has hit us here in Tibet, we decided not to endanger the rest of the trip by making the climb. We joined several other guests who made the same decision, sat in the sun, and enjoyed the view and conversation. We opted to walk through a museum. All the signs were in Tibetan and Mandarin, so we don't know what we saw, but here are some of the artifacts.

About two hours later, we met the rest of the group. They mentioned that Oliver lied, and while there were many small steps, there were also many tall steps and some areas that were so steep that they resembled ladders. Plus, once at the top and in the temple where the most important artifacts and golden stupas were, no photography was allowed. I think we made the right call.

This was the Tibetan visa that covered our entire group's visit to Tibet

We headed to lunch at the same hotel that hosted last night's meal and show. Then, we had the option to stop in town for shopping or return to the hotel.

We opted to return to the hotel, where Arlona spent some quality time on the oxygen concentrator. A little while later, we both took nice, long showers, and then I spent some time with the oxygen. That led to a little nap. After some relaxing time, we grabbed dinner at the hotel, courtesy of Viking, and returned to the room to get our checked bags ready. They need to be outside our door by 10:00 tonight. Tomorrow, we need to be on the bus at 7:30 for our flight to Chengdu, China, where we will visit the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and attend a Sichuan Opera in the evening. It will be nice to be at a much lower altitude.