Tibetan authorities are to limit the number of pilgrims visiting the traditional home of the Dalai Lama in an attempt to prevent damage to the thousand year-old landmark.
The move comes as masses of Buddhists have gathered near the Dalai Lama’s Potala Palace to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Buddha.
The pilgrims have seen the unveiling of a huge silk portrait of the Sakyamuni Buddha with incense burning on a hillside above the Drepung Monastery in Lhasa.
The ceremony has been performed annually at the monastery since the 15th century.
More than 3,000 visitors had been paying visits each day to the traditional home of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual and temporal leader, said Chamba Kelsang, director of the administrative department of the Potala Palace.
The structure’s hulking mass belies a delicate interior construction of mud brick, stone and wood, and crowds were straining floors and staircases, Chamba Kelsang said.
“The Potala is like an old man. … There is only so much it can bear,” he told a visiting group of foreign journalists.
Since construction began in A.D. 700, the Potala has loomed over Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, dominating the skyline with 13 floors and hundreds of rooms and Buddhist chapels atop the red hill in the city’s centre.
The palace was left empty after the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 following an abortive uprising against communist Chinese rule and in 1979 was opened to the public as a museum.
While Lhasa has transformed from an ancient Tibetan city to a congested modern metropolis, the Potala and its massive collection of Buddhist art have been carefully preserved.
The palace was designated a World Heritage Site by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in 1994, requiring it be preserved in its original state.
