Lhasa - Potala Palace

29.6500°N, 91.1000°E.

Tibetan Autonomous Region capital at 3,656 metres elevation in the Lhasa River valley. The Potala Palace, completed 1645 CE under the fifth Dalai Lama on the foundation of an earlier 7th-century palace, rises 117 metres above the Marpo Ri (Red Hill) in thirteen stories of stone, timber, and gilded copper. The structure contains over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 chapels, and 200,000 statues; the gilded roofs of the Potala alone use approximately 200,000 grams of gold leaf. The Jokhang Temple, founded in 642 CE by Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, contains the Jowo Shakyamuni — a statue brought from China by Princess Wencheng, considered the most sacred Buddhist image in Tibet. The kora circumambulation path circles the Jokhang clockwise, walked daily by pilgrims who often complete the route in full prostrations covering hundreds of kilometres.

The most sacred building in Tibetan Buddhism sits 117 metres above its capital — and pilgrims arrive after walking the last hundred kilometres face-down on the ground.