Potala Palace

The Potala Palace is a symbol of Tibet, the snowy capital, and even the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This highest and most majestic palace in the world is the most splendid symbol of Tibetan culture. At the beginning of the 7th century, Songtsen Gampo unified the various tribes, established the capital of Lhasa, and established the Tubo slave regime. In 641, he married the Tang Dynasty and built a palace on Maburi Mountain to marry Princess Wencheng. Because Songtsen Gampo regarded Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva as his own deity, he named the palace after the Bodhisattva's residence "Potala" in the Buddhist scriptures, and called it "Potala Palace". "Potala" is a transliteration of Sanskrit, also translated as "Putuoluo", "Putuo Luojia" or "Putuo", which means "Buddhist Holy Land". The Potala Palace originally refers to the island where Guanyin Bodhisattva lives, commonly known as the "Second Putuo Mountain".