It is impossible to talk about the beautiful and impressive Potala Palace without talking about the steps. They tell you there are about 360 steps you must walk up to ascend to the entrance of this 1300 year old building that has been the home of all the Dalai Lamas and the seat of government for Tibet back when it was a free nation. You may think 360 steps is not a lot… but there are often large spaces between the steps and the Tibetan altitude makes this quite a climb.
To merely say we were huffing and puffing when we reached the summit of our climb would be an understatement. I was probably breathing as hard as I ever have, my lungs sucking in air at a desperate rate but never being satisfied because there is so little oxygen at this altitude. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the accomplishments of serious mountain climbers, that’s for sure.
The above photo does not even begin to do justice to the climb as the steps twist and double-back several times so it is sorta impossible to capture the entire climb in a picture. The sun was doing us no favors either, beating down, which is why everyone was wearing hats and walking along the side to stay as much in the shade as possible. I was quite impressed as everyone in our group except one person made it to the top. Several folks had expressed a lack of confidence in themselves, but managed to get there.
Sadly, you are not allowed to take pictures inside the Palace. The only shot I got was of Skip Poliner standing in front of a painted wall at the halfway point of our climb.
Because so many tourists and faithful want to see the inside of the Palace, there are strict limits on how many people get inside it every day and strict limits on how long you can stay inside. We had one hour to see 26 chambers, which meant we were often racing from room to room. The rush served to defeat some of the spirituality of the place, unfortunately. In fact, the most enduring impression I had of the inside of the Palace was the tombs of the Dalai Lamas. In a nation not known for its wealth, the tombs were filled with incredible amounts of gold and jewels. Several contained more than a thousand pounds of gold, to say nothing of all the jewels that were covering the gold. It was impressive. We were later told by Pasang, our Tibertan guide, that whenever a Dalai Lama dies, all the people of Tibet gladly donate whatever gold and jewels they own to help build the tomb. These people take their devotion seriously ;)
When the tour was done, we had to climb down the steps. Kathy and I ran down them as fast as we could, because we wanted to get around to the front of the Palace to take a picture with the entire Palace in the background. It is sorta a mandatory picture in Tibet but this would be our only chance to do it and we had to get around to the front of the Palace and then back to the bus, parked in the back of the Palace before the rest of the group made it down from the top, because we did not want to hold the group up. Kathy got a cramp in her side, I was panting from exhaustion, but we got the picture we wanted. I think it was worth it. What do you think?
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