The Potala Palace (Tibetan: པོ་ཏ་ལ, Wylie: Po ta la, ZYPY: Bodala) in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lamafled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. It is now a museum and World Heritage Site.

The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the bodhisattvaAvalokiteśvara.^[1] The 5th Dalai Lama started its construction in 1645^[2] after one of his spiritual advisers, Konchog Chophel (died 1646), pointed out that the site was ideal as a seat of government, situated as it is between Drepung and Sera monasteries and the old city of Lhasa.^[3] It may overlay the remains of an earlier fortress called the White or Red Palace,^[4] on the site built by Songtsän Gampo in 637