Lhasa Tibet: The Potala Palace

The Potala Palace was the home of the Dali Lama prior to exile. It was built around a cave that was used for meditation ages ago and now is a throne for statues of those key influencers of Tibetan Buddism. It is sad for me to see something that once offered an active path to enlightenment to the peoples of this area. Now it is just a shrine, that doubles as a museum. The climb up was long and the views divine. We then continued to two other temples and a market.
Factoid: Tibetan Monk sects are described as 'Red Hat', 'Yellow Hat' and others. The Yellow Hat sect have daily debates where the monks challange themselves on the teachings of Buddism. The attached video shows the monks throwing questions at each other like pitchers in a baseball game, then those sitting try to answer questions like “what is the meaning of life”.