Potala Palace: Then and Now
Winter palace of the Dalai Lamas on the Red Hill of Lhasa, rebuilt from 1645 by the Fifth Dalai Lama on the site of a seventh-century palace.
Today
Key facts
| Country today | China |
| Status | Standing |
| Date | 1649 |
| Nearest city on the map | Lhasa (about 2 km) |
| Location | 29.658° N, 91.117° E |
Potala PalaceOpen Potala Palace in the interactive map
Who ruled this place
Derived from the border maps; each row runs until the next recorded border change.
| Period | State |
|---|---|
| 500 BC–401 BC | Unclaimed / no data |
| 400 BC–324 BC | Proto-Tibetan cultures |
| 323 BC–201 BC | Unclaimed / no data |
| 200 BC–101 BC | Thai |
| 100 BC–699 | Unclaimed / no data |
| 700–799 | Tufan Empire |
| 800–999 | Tibetan Empire |
| 1000–1782 | Tibet |
| 1783–1814 | Qing Empire |
| 1815–1913 | Manchu Empire |
| 1914–1993 | Tibet |
| 1994–today | China |
More: Historic landmarks of China · All landmarks
Further reading
Last updated 9 November 2026. Sources: border data from historical-basemaps, land and rivers from Natural Earth; texts written for Chronica Maps from standard reference works. How we make the maps.