The next day, we made an appointment to visit Potala Palace.

When we met, he also brought a new friend. Everyone was very happy and immediately formed the "three people's line of cloth Palace".

In order to understand Potala Palace, I studied the history of Tibet roughly.

In the early 7th century, Songzanganbu unified Tibet, established the capital of Lhasa, and established a powerful Tibetan regime. "La" means "God" in Tibetan, and "Sa" means "Earth", so Lhasa means "sacred land" in Tibetan.

In 641, in order to consolidate the political power, Songzanganbu married Nepal's takuri Dynasty and Central Plains Tang Dynasty, married Princess Chizun and Wencheng, and built a palace on the mabri mountain. Because Songzanganbu regards GuanShiYin bodhisattva (the free Buddha in the world) as his own Buddha, he named the palace "Potala Palace" with the place where the Bodhisattva lives in the Sutra.

At that time, potala palace had a thousand houses of different sizes, but some of them were destroyed by thunder under the rule of Chisong Dezan. Later, when the Tubo Dynasty was destroyed, almost all the palaces were destroyed, leaving only two Buddhist halls to survive the war. Since then, with Tibet's political center moved to Sakya, the Potala Palace has also been in a state of dilapidation.

In 1642, the fifth Dalai Lama, Lausanne Gyatso, established the regime of kadanpozhang, and Lhasa once again became the political center of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. In 1645, he began to rebuild the Potala Palace, which was completed three years later for the White House. In 1653, the fifth Dalai Lama moved into the palace. Since then, the Dalai Lamas of all dynasties have lived here, and major religious and political ceremonies have been held here. The Potala Palace has thus become the ruling center of the unity of politics and religion in Tibet. After the death of the fifth Dalai Lama, in order to place the Stupa, the palace manager, deba sangjiejiacuo, continued to expand the palace and formed the Red Palace. In 1959, Shida Lai Danzeng Gyatso left Tibet. Since then, potala palace is no longer a place for political activities, but only retains the function of religion.

After its completion, Potala Palace has been expanded many times before it has reached its present scale. The whole Potala Palace has nearly 10000 houses, all of which are of wood and stone structure, with a building area of about 130000 square meters. The outer wall of the palace is made of large granite, with a thickness of 2-5M. Part of the interlayer of the wall is also filled with iron juice, which is more solid.

The main building of Potala Palace consists of three parts. The Red Palace is in the middle, with the White House in the East and zhaxia in the West. The three are connected and integrated. On the plane, the palace is made up of many rectangular houses, with very complex structure. In the vertical, the height of various houses is scattered, the front and back are uneven, and the primary and secondary are clear.

The exterior of the building is painted in red, white and yellow, which symbolizes dignity, tranquility and completeness. The color and style of the building have distinctive Tibetan Buddhist characteristics. The white part is coated with white lime powder, which is mixed with a large amount of milk and sprinkled on the wall. The red part of the building material is white horse grass, which can not only reduce the load on the wall, but also absorb the bows and arrows of foreign enemies.

Before climbing the Potala Palace, you will pass a stone tablet without words. It is the fifth Dalai Lama who stands in memory of the completion of the Red Palace. After the wordless stone tablet is the entrance to the mountain passage. There is a big square stone beside the entrance, which is engraved with the character "卍". The guide told us that this is a horse stone. Today's roads have been covered by stone steps. In ancient times, all roads were made of earth. The rulers of Tibet rode up the mountain here.

The road up the mountain is zigzag. In the process of climbing, every other section of the road will have an oval stone hole protruding from the wall. When we were tired of walking, we just sat on it and rested. None of us knew what this was for, and we all joked and guessed. Later I learned that it was used to tie horses!

At the end of the zigzag road is the east gate, which is a main passage into the Potala Palace. The entrance of the passage is covered by a huge Tibetan curtain. The curtain is made of yak hair by hand. It is excellent to use it to prevent wind and rain. Enter the gate and enter the hall. On the walls on both sides are giant portraits of the four great kings. They stare at the tiny people angrily, like people need to be awed before they see the Buddha.

The front walk is a corridor. There is a red paint gate at the entrance of the corridor. The gate has been opened. There is a huge diamond knot tied on the copper ring of the door panels on both sides. It is made of blue, white, yellow, green and red "hada" nodules. Blue represents blue sky, white represents white clouds, green represents rivers and rivers, red represents the God of space protection, and yellow represents the earth. Such objects have infinite power in the hearts of believers of Tibetan Buddhism. Every Tibetan passing by the Vajra knot will hold it up and pray face to face.

At the end of the corridor is the White House square, where you can enter the Potala Palace from Deyang mansion after a short rest. When entering the cloth palace, we should respect the taboos of Tibetan Buddhism, especially not wear skirts. Tourists in skirts will be asked to change into trousers before they are allowed in. After entering the palace, please take off your hat and don't step on the threshold of the hall. Photos are forbidden in most parts of the palace, only outside.

There is a squatting toilet in the north of Deyang mansion, which is called "the deepest toilet in the world". It is built on the top of the cave. The cave leads directly to the foot of the mountain. Its depth is no less than five or sixty meters. If you want to experience "flying down three thousand feet", you have to!

In Deyang mansion, the light is dim at first, and then it goes in, and then it becomes bright gradually. A butter lamp is distributed all over the hall. As a keepsake for people to communicate with ghosts and gods, they are immortal all the year round.

The flow of pedestrians in the main hall is slow, and almost all of them are Tibetans. Sporadic tourists mingle with it and drift with it. With the flow of people, we can see the flowers and horses. Both sides of the corridor are full of murals, Buddha statues, scriptures and artifacts. It can be called an art gallery, but we can't understand anything

Every time they pass a Buddha statue, there will be Tibetans stop to face the Buddha statue with their hands folded and their heads bowed. In a slightly spacious place, they will kowtow to the same length. At the end of the ceremony, they will present the prepared butter, or golden lacquer, or hada, or money to the Buddha.

I then understood that the "money exchange business" at the gate of Potala Palace was to exchange large denominations of money for change of 15 cents, so as to contribute to the Buddha's mind. I have observed that among the money changers, the tourists are a few, basically all Tibetans.

The main hall of the White House is jifuyuan Hall (cuoqing Xiasi xipingcuo), with the Dalai Lama throne on the north side and the plaque of "Zhenxi Suijiang" written by the emperor Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty hanging above it.

The highest part of the White House is the sun palace, which serves as the living palace of the Dalai Lama. In front of the temple, we each got a hada for one yuan. The ceremony of scholars and Tibetans was dedicated to the Buddha in the temple.

Then, enter the red palace through the Qiangba Buddha Hall (qiangkang). The Red Palace is the Dalai's stupa hall and all kinds of Buddha halls. There are eight stupas in total, among which the fifth Dalai is the first and the largest. According to records, the gold used for inlaying the pagoda alone is up to 119000 Liang, and the treated remains of the Dalai Lama are preserved in the pagoda.

The West Hall is the hall of the fifth Dalai Lingta hall. It is the largest palace in the Red Palace. In addition to the plaque given by the Emperor Qianlong, a pair of large-scale brocade curtains are also preserved, which are rare treasures in Potala Palace.

From the West Hall to qujiezhupu (that is, Songzanganbu xiufadong) through the gallery, this seventh century building is one of the oldest buildings in Potala Palace, where there are statues of Songzanganbu, Princess Wencheng and their ministers.

The highest palace in the Red Palace is called sasong Langjie (meaning winning the three realms), which is dedicated to the portrait of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty and the "long live" memorial tablet. Since about the 7th Dalai gesangjiacuo, Dalai Lamas of all ages come here to pay homage to the emperor in the early morning of the third day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar every year, so as to show their official relationship with the emperor.

Outside the Red Palace is the back door of Potala Palace. Standing outside the door, lying on the wall, I looked down on Lhasa for the first time. Looking at the dense "black spots" below, I suddenly felt that these nearly two hours of sightseeing, what really touched me was not the Sutra and murals, nor the pagoda and the Tancheng, but the Tibetans. They were devout to the Buddha, pure and consistent. This kind of cultivation formed a kind of awe inspiring beauty