Our second palace/monastery visit is the Potala Palace. The Potala Palace was built in the 7th century, around the time of King Songtsen Gampo. In the 17th century, the fifth Dalai Lama extended the Palace to its present size and made it his primary residence. The Potala is divided into two palaces - Red (Marpo Ri) was built by King Songtsen Gampo and resided during the mid-7th century, and White (Kharpo Podrang) was built by the fifth Dalai Lama and moved in 1649 from Drepung Monastery. The Potala Palace includes Dalai Lama's living quarters, chapels, funeral stupas and monk dormitories, plus the tombs of fifth to thirteenth Dalai Lama.
Next up...The Jokhang Temple, located in the Old Town section of Lhasa, was built around 647 by King Songtsen Gampo. The temple was constructed to house an image of Mikyoba (Akshobhya) brought to Tibet as part of the dowery of his Nepali wife Princess Bhrikuti. The Ramoche Temple was constructed at the same time to house another Budda image, Jowo Sakymuni (Sakya Thukpa), brought to Tibet by his Chinese wife Princess Wen Cheng.
In the afternoon, we went shopping for a bike. I decided that it was silly for me to rent a bike when I can buy a new bike for about the same price. My other logic...a new bike should not breakdown compared to a used bike, and I can also sell it in Kathmandu to get back some money. After negotiating hard with the Giant salesperson (she wouldn't drop the price), I ended up leaving the store empty-handed but got a fantastic deal for a new UCC (Chinese brand I believe) bike at a local bike shop...essentially it's the same bike as Giant but without the name. Mat and I rode our bikes out to Drepung Monastery for a test ride and then back to Spinn Cafe to show off my new mountain bike. What a fun day!
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