Why Potala Palace Is a Wonder

Nov. 9, 2006 — -- For centuries, Tibet developed a remarkable and entirely unique culture.

The country, hidden behind the highest mountains on earth, spreads across a plateau that is, on average, 15,000 feet above sea level with a sharp light and thin air that add to its wild intensity.

With up to a quarter of its people in monasteries, Tibet created a society in which a monk -- discovered through a series of omens at the age of 2 or so -- was ruler of the people. Philosophers and lamas developed astonishing powers of the mind and body at a time when other cultures built roads and railways.

The very center of Tibet is Lhasa, and the very center of Lhasa, for more than three centuries, has been the Potala Palace. An unfathomable building erected on a rock face 13 stories high, it has golden turrets on the roof that can be seen 12 miles away, and stretches for more than a 1,000 feet along a ridge against the snowcaps. The Potala looks and feels like no other building on the planet.

But more extraordinary is its meaning. It was at once a center of government, a residence of Tibet's ruler (the Dalai Lama), the site of a monastery and a mausoleum for eight previous Dalai Lamas. It's as if the White House, the Houses of Congress, Arlington Cemetery and the National Cathedral were all concentrated in a single building.

And the Potala stood for a unique system in which administrators would be monks, politicial meetings would include prayers, and law and order was in the hands of a meditating clergy.

The Potala belongs on any list of seven modern wonders because it is not just a stunning palace, though it is as heart-stopping as anything in Windsor Castle or Versailles.

It is not just a sometime center for a National Assembly, though it was that, too; it is not only an architectural marvel, though it is so inspiring as a building that it was the one monument that Frank Lloyd Wright always kept a picture of on his desk.