Potala Palace

Timeline

1. 1645–1653White Palace, Potala Palace · LhasaIn 1645 the Fifth Dalai Lama began rebuilding the White Palace on the Tibetan-era site on Red Hill as the palace and administrative center of the Ganden Phodrang local regime. After its completion, the Dalai Lama moved there from Drepung Monastery. In 1652–1653 the Fifth Dalai Lama traveled to Beijing to audience with the Qing Shunzhi Emperor; after returning to Tibet, the Potala Palace became the fixed seat of Gelug political-religious power and entered a phase of sustained contact with the Qing court.
2. 1661–1682Potala Palace, Lhasa · LhasaIn the early Kangxi reign, the Qing court maintained contact with the Gelug school in Lhasa through investiture, envoys, and Mongol intermediaries; as the Fifth Dalai Lama's residence, the Potala Palace was the core venue where the Ganden Phodrang handled Mongol-Tibetan affairs and received envoys. The palace was both a religious pilgrimage site and the administrative hub from which the Tibetan local regime issued orders, consolidating the spatial order of unified political and religious authority here.
3. 1690–1694Red Palace, Potala Palace · LhasaAfter the Fifth Dalai Lama's death in 1682, Desi Sangye Gyatso concealed the death for a long time and from 1690 built the Red Palace west of the White Palace to house stupas, chapels, and spaces for religious ceremonies. The Red Palace was completed in 1694, forming the main White Palace–Red Palace layout of the Potala Palace, which became the core of the political-religious complex where subsequent Dalai Lamas resided and their stupas were enshrined.