Roof of the World — the Tibetan plateau capital at 3,650 metres where the Potala Palace crowns a sacred hill, butter-lamp smoke drifts from the Jokhang Temple, and pilgrims prostrate themselves around the Barkhor Circuit
Lhasa is the spiritual and administrative capital of Tibet — a city at 3,650 metres on the Tibetan plateau where every visitor feels the altitude within minutes and the sacred geography within hours. The Potala Palace, built by the Fifth Dalai Lama in the 17th century on the Red Hill (Marpo Ri), is the defining image of Tibet — a 13-storey fortress-monastery of white and red rising 170 metres above the city, housing the tombs of past Dalai Lamas. The Jokhang Temple in the Barkhor quarter is considered the holiest site in all of Tibetan Buddhism — a 7th-century shrine that draws pilgrims who c…
Lhasa ('Place of the Gods' in Tibetan) was established as a royal capital in the 7th century CE by Songtsen Gampo, the founder of the Tibetan Empire — one of the most powerful states in Central Asia between the 7th and 9th centuries. Songtsen Gampo built the first Jokhang Temple and the first Potala Palace (later rebuilt) and introduced Buddhism from Nepal and China to Tibet. The Tibetan Empire at its height controlled territory from Bengal to the Tarim Basin and briefly captured the Tang Dynasty capital of Chang'an (Xi'an) in 763 CE. After the collapse of the empire in the 9th century, Tibet…