THE WORLD'S STRANGEST CAPITAL 



By John Claude White 



Author of "Castles in the Air," in the National Geographic Magazine, 



April, 1914 



LHASA, the Place of the Gods, well 

 deserves its name, as anything 

 _J more beautiful can hardly be im- 

 agined than the vision of the sacred city 

 set against its magnificent background of 

 snow-capped mountains. Whether seen 

 on a brilliant day, under a cloudless sky, 

 during a thunder-storm, painted in soft, 

 glowing tints by one of the wonderful 

 sunsets seen only in Tibet, or by moon- 

 light, when with outlines softened and 

 toned down, the Potala stands out like a 

 phantom castle in ghostly splendor from 

 among the shadows of its surrounding 

 trees, all aspects are equally lovely. 



My readers are referred to the pano- 

 rama of Lhasa, published as a supple- 

 ment to this number of the Geographic 

 Magazine. 



The Potala is by far the finest build- 

 ing and eclipses all others in the beauty 

 of its appearance. The present Potala 

 was commenced in 1645 by the Grand 

 Lama Nag-wang Lob-sang-gya-tsho, on 

 the same site as a former building 

 erected by Srong-tsan-gam-po, the king 

 who founded the Jo-kang in the sixth 

 century ; and there is no doubt, I think, 

 that the city is an ancient one and was 

 in existence more than 1,200 years ago, 

 although we can find no records giving 

 any authentic historical account. 



a dominating structure 



The Potala dominates everything in 

 Lhasa. The enormous mass of build- 

 ings, partly monastery, partly palace, and 

 partly fortress, is built on a rocky ridge 

 which stands out in the center of the 

 valley, commanding the town and domi- 

 nating the whole situation. Its architec- 

 ture is magnificently grand, bold in out- 

 line and design ; it towers above every- 

 thing, with its gray white walls and but- 

 tresses, its immense flights of steps and 

 terraces dotted with red-robed monks 

 ascending and descending from religious 

 ceremonies ; its dull madder-red temple 



walls, with carved and painted windows, 

 showing behind black brown yak's hair 

 hangings, surmounted by its gilded roofs 

 and set in almost park-like surroundings 

 of trees and meadows, with snow-capped 

 mountains on all sides and the Kyi-chhu, 

 the River of Delight, running clear in 

 many channels through groves of willow 

 or poplar. 



It is indeed a fitting shrine for the 

 heart of any religion, and with such sur- 

 roundings it is difficult to understand 

 how the present form of Buddhism 

 (Lamaism), as practiced in Tibet, could 

 ever have sunk to the depths of degra- 

 dation it has reached. It is devoutly to 

 be hoped that some reformer may arise 

 to cleanse it of its many superstitions 

 and to reinstate the simple tenets of its 

 founder. 



a disappointing interior 



But the interior of the Potala is curi- 

 ously disappointing, as it consists prin- 

 cipally of a mass of dark passages and 

 cells, a certain number of halls and 

 flights of steps. 



Among the larger halls were several 

 striking ones, especially that in which 

 was the gilt tomb of Nag-wang-Lob- 

 sang Gya-tsho ; the dome of this hall ex- 

 tended upward through several stories. 

 On the tomb there was a great deal of 

 metal ornamentation and the whole 

 formed a fine piece of work. On each 

 side of the principal tomb were similar 

 ones of smaller dimensions, those of 

 Dalai Lamas less notable. 



In another room of fairly large dimen- 

 sions the walls were lined with shelves 

 from floor to ceiling, each shelf closely 

 packed to its uttermost extent with im- 

 ages of Buddha. There must have been 

 thousands of all metals — gold, silver, 

 copper, brass — and many were of very 

 beautiful workmanship. In another 

 chapel there were hundreds of golden 

 butter lamps. 



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