To Lhasa

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I couldn't resist taking this photo. I practically had to sit in the lap of the elderly Tibetan in the window seat to do it.  

My only excuse is that I hadn't seen the sun since we left home.  

When one flies into Lhasa the "Land of The Gods" on the "roof of the world", one is advised to take things very easy for a day or two.  Even to the extent of not using up precious energy talking.  Well...with the Potala Palace just a ten minute walk away who could rest?  I certainly couldn't

Standing at last in front of the Potala I had at my back  a vast square culminating in the "Memorial to the Liberation of Tibet". 

 Erected in 2002 it is said to have been inspired by Mount Everest.

Construction of the Potala began in 1645 during the reign of the 5th Dalai Lama.  

8500 workers, craftsmen and artists laboured to build the white palace followed three years later by the red palace.  

It escaped major damage during the Tibetan uprising and again in the 1960's and 70's when Chou En Lai is though to have intervened to prevent it's destruction by Red Guards. 
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