Word: potala
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Over Lhasa, the golden roof of the Potala Palace sparkled in the thin air. Once the living heart of Tibetan Buddhism, spiritual and temporal seat of the Dalai Lama, Potala is now a cultural relic. It remains an architectural wonder. Designed as fortress, labyrinth and spiritual sanctuary, Potala rises 13 stories high and stretches 460 yards along the dominating hillside. Across the front of the palace, in giant white letters on a black background, was a solemn epitaph: ETERNAL GLORY TO CHAIRMAN MAO TSE-TUNG, GREAT LEADER AND GREAT TEACHER...
...Potala, he said, it is used "to teach class education, Tibetan culture and language." Visitors are shown the Dalai Lama's brocade-lined private quarters at the very top of the palace. The long corridors, which were once dimly illuminated by lamps that burned yak butter, now have electric lights. But the palace's past is still evoked by a pantheon of Buddhist deities in prayer halls, and by the rows of sutras (books of Buddhist scripture) piled on wooden shelves...
...portion of the exhibit was "Socialist New Tibet," where "the emancipated serfs have organized to develop production." It is a hall filled with all kinds of grains, fruits and vegetables, furs and agricultural machinery, along with various exhortations for communal economic development. In a filled-in swamp below the Potala, the Chinese have built an administrative complex and guesthouse...
Tibetan aides gave further details of the flight from Lhasa. As relations with Red China worsened, food stocks were prepared for a quick journey, and part of the fabulous Potala treasure was crated for mountain transport. On the morning of March 17, as tension rose in Lhasa, officials filtered from the palace in small groups, ostensibly to visit other monasteries. That night, dressed in the robe of a poor monk and without his customary glasses, the Dalai Lama left the palace as if taking a stroll, but he was shadowed by bodyguards. His mother and brother departed even earlier...
...before letting the Dalai Lama be taken from them. Hidden stores of arms were passed out to the furious populace. Khamba tribesmen with their rifles, swords and lean, savage dogs began to filter into Lhasa. The nervous Chinese set up machine-gun posts, trained artillery on the Potala and the Norbulingka palaces...