{"id":5022,"date":"2015-10-08T10:53:36","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T17:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/?p=5022"},"modified":"2015-10-13T14:24:03","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T21:24:03","slug":"the-highest-ancient-palace-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/the-highest-ancient-palace-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Highest Ancient Palace in the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_5029\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5029\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-5029 size-full\" title=\"California Native\u2019s Lee &amp; Ellen Klein in a group standing in front of the Potala Palace.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala1.jpg\" alt=\"California Native\u2019s Lee &amp; Ellen Klein in a group standing in front of the Potala Palace.\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala1.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala1-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala1-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5029\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Native\u2019s Lee &amp; Ellen Klein in a group standing in front of the Potala Palace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. It is now a museum and World Heritage Site. This amazing palace has the honor of being the highest ancient palace in the world, with its highest point 12,300 feet above sea level, towering 300 feet above the city of Lhasa. This 13-stories-high palace has over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and contains about 200,000 statues. The stone walls measure 10 feet thick on average.<\/p>\n<p>The palace is named after Mount Potalaka. The 5th Dalai Lama started its construction in 1645 after one of his spiritual advisers, Konchog Chophel, pointed out that the site was ideal as a seat of government, situated as it is between two monasteries and the old city of Lhasa.<\/p>\n<p>The Palace contains two sections, the White Palace and the Red Palace. The first White Palace was built during the lifetime of the Fifth Dalai Lama and he and his government moved into it in 1649. It was extended to its present size by the thirteenth Dalai Lama in the early 20th century. The palace contained the living quarters, offices, seminary and printing house. A central, yellow-painted courtyard known as a Deyangshar separates the living quarters from\u00a0the Red Palace, which is the part of the Potala palace that is completely devoted to religious study and Buddhist prayer.<\/p>\n<p>The California Native has been leading tours to exotic destinations for more than 30 years and people are always asking what our favorites are. One of our favorite trips is this wonderful journey which begins in Beijing, China, travels through Tibet and hits its high point at Mount Everest Base Camp at the top of the world. California Native\u2019s own Lee &amp; Ellen Klein recently revisited this adventure which visits The Potala Palace.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5031\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5031\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-5031 size-full\" title=\"Lee Klein climbing the entrance steps to the palace.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala2.jpg\" alt=\"Lee Klein climbing the entrance steps to the palace.\" width=\"500\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala2.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala2-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5031\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lee Klein climbing the entrance steps to the palace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5032\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5032\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-5032 size-full\" title=\"Yellow-painted courtyard known as a Deyangshar separates the living quarters with the Red Palace.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala3.jpg\" alt=\"Yellow-painted courtyard known as a Deyangshar separates the living quarters with the Red Palace.\" width=\"500\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala3.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala3-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5032\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yellow-painted courtyard known as a Deyangshar separates the living quarters with the Red Palace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5033\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5033\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-5033 size-full\" title=\"Ellen Klein walks among a group in the beautiful palace grounds. \" src=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala4.jpg\" alt=\"Ellen Klein walks among a group in the beautiful palace grounds. \" width=\"500\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala4.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala4-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5033\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ellen Klein walks among a group in the beautiful palace grounds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5030\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5030\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-5030 size-full\" title=\"This large stone is dedicated to the Dali Lama and the palace.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala5.jpg\" alt=\"This large stone is dedicated to the Dali Lama and the palace.\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala5.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala5-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/potala5-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5030\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This large stone is dedicated to the Dali Lama and the palace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. It is now a museum and World Heritage Site. This amazing palace has the honor of being the highest ancient palace in the world, with its highest point &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/the-highest-ancient-palace-in-the-world\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Highest Ancient Palace in the World&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[163,217,25,15,242,235,236,33,54,35,13,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5022"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5022"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5041,"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5022\/revisions\/5041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calnative.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}