The Potala Palace is located in the city of Lhasa in Tibet. The palace is situated at an altitude of 3,700 meters on the Red Hill (MARP Ri) in the middle of Lhasa Valley. It is the royal palace and Buddhist temple complex, which was the main residence of the Dalai Lama until the flight of the Dalai Lama XIV in Dharamsala (India) after the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959. The palace is located in the city overlooking the high hill. The total area of the palace complex is 360 thousand sq. M. m. The name of the palace comes, apparently, from the legendary Mount Potala, the home of the bodhisattva Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), which is in the land of the Dalai Lama.
In 637 the king of Tibet Songtsen Gampo built the first building here in the place where he used to meditate. When he decided to make his capital Lhasa, he built a palace. After his engagement with the Chinese princess Wen Cheng, he expanded to 999 rooms palace, erected walls and towers and dug a diversion channel. In the second half of the VIII century, the palace was hit by lightning and burned wooden buildings, and then because of civil wars destroyed the palace. Now from the original buildings preserved only cave-Fa Wang and Hall Pabalakan.
The palace in its present form was started in 1645 on the initiative of the Dalai Lama V. Three years later, construction was completed on the White Palace (Potrang carp), and the Potala was used as a winter residence of the Dalai Lamas. Red Palace (Potrang MARP) was completed between 1690 and 1694 years. White Palace consists of a large oriental pavilion solar pavilion, residential quarters regent and tutor of the Dalai Lama, as well as the premises of the government. Great Eastern Pavilion was used for official ceremonies, in a sunny pavilion Dalai Lama actually lived and worked, read the scriptures, studied management. Red Palace was a place of prayer and religious rituals. Today, Potala Palace is a museum, is actively visited by tourists, while remaining a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists and continuing use in Buddhist rituals.