Summer Palace of the 13th Dalai Lama

Lhasa

The summer palace of the 13th Dalai Lama (Chensek Podrang) is in the western section of the Norbulingka. The ground-floor assembly hall is stuffed full of various buggies, palanquins, bicycles and a stage coach. The fine murals depicting the life of Sakyamuni are hard to see without a torch.

Nearby, the smaller Kelsang Dekyi Palace was also built by the 13th Dalai Lama, in 1926, as a Tantric temple. The fine murals depict Ganden and Potala – not the buildings but the Buddhist paradises of the same name. Note there is an awful zoo inside the complex where animals are kept in poor conditions – steer clear.

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