Red Palace

The Potrang Marpo ('Red Palace') was added between 1690 and 1694. Marpo Ri ('Red Mountain') T

he Red Palace or Potrang Marpo is part of the Potala palace that is completely devoted to religious study and Buddhist prayer.

It consists of a complicated layout of many different halls, chapels and libraries on many different levels with a complex array of smaller galleries and winding passages:

Red Palace is used for religious functions.

The most stunning chapels of the Red Palace house the jewel-bedecked golden chörten (Tibetan stupa) tombs of several previous Dalai Lamas.

The apartments of the 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas, in the White Palace, offer a more personal insight into life in the palace.

Grand aesthetics and history aside, however, one can't help noticing that today it is essentially an empty shell, notably

missing its main occupant, the Dalai Lama, and a cavernous memorial to what once was.

"red palace" contains the principal halls and chapels and shrines of past Dalai Lamas.

There is in these much rich decorative painting, with jeweled work, carving and other ornamentation.

Red Palace, the other side of the sacred Potala, which is completely devoted to religious study and prayer.

It contains the sacred gold stupas—the tombs of eight Dalai Lamas—the monks' assembly hall, numerous chapels and shrines,

and libraries for the important Buddhist scriptures, the Kangyur in 108 volumes and the Tengyur with 225.

The yellow building at the side of the White Palace in the courtyard between the main palaces houses giant banners

embroidered with holy symbols which hung across the south face of the Potala during New Year festivals.