2011 July | Tibet Tours

Archive for July, 2011

Potala Palace’s new guardian devoted to his job

Qungda, Potala Palace's new guardian, is seen in this picture taken on April 26, 2011. [Photo/Xinhua]

Five months after being appointed chief administration officer of the Potala Palace in Tibet, Qungda still feels the heavy weight of responsibility.

“It is such a grand duty,” said Qungda, who replaced the previous chief officer Champa Kelsang after the latter retired due to old age last December.

“The palace, a construction miracle, is not only a treasure of our Tibetan people but the whole world,” he said.

Qungda, 60, well understands the fragility of this ancient stone-and-wooden structure, built in the 7th century.

From 1965 to 1985, Qungda served in the fire control department of Lhasa and fought a serious fire in one of the chapels of the palace in 1984, the fourth fire in the palace’s history.

Firemen, monks and civilians in the neighborhood put out the fire within three hours, stopping it from spreading to the rest of the building.

The blaze destroyed half of a valuable Buddhist sutra manuscript. It took five years to restore the chapel.

“The day after the accident, a team of 10 firemen were posted inside the palace and I was appointed the leader,” Qungda said.

The first thing he did after working in the Potala Palace was explore every corner of the labyrinth palace, so to get a full picture of its layout and risks.

The Potala Palace has had no fire since.

In 1985, Qungda left the fire control department to work in the palace’s security department.

In 1988 he was appointed vice chief of the palace’s administration and remained in the role till his recent promotion.

Born into a farmer’s family in Lhasa, Qungda had been attracted by the Potala Palace since he was a child.

“It looked very solemn and sacred from outside and I was always wondering what it would be like inside,” he said.

The Potala Palace remained the residence of the Dalai Lamas till 1959.

In 1975, Qungda first entered the Potala Palace as a fireman taking part in a fire control exercise.

“It never occurred to me that I would work inside it for more than 20 years,” he said.

During these years, Qungda witnessed two large-scale restorations of palace’s interior, in 1989 and 2002 respectively.

The latest restoration ended in 2009.

“It made me feel a little bit relaxed as the latest restoration eliminated most of the risks in the framework and facilities,” he said.

In 2003, the palace administration limited the number of visitors to 2,300 per day, which has helped protect the grand old structure.

However, Qungda remains cautious. No matter how cold it gets, staff are not allowed to use electric heaters as they are a safety risk, he said.

His son Norsang Nyandrak is following in his father’s footsteps, working as a fireman inside the palace.

“I am glad he understands the importance of his work and enjoys it,” Qungda said.

Qungda always said he would devote the rest of his life protecting the Potala Palace.

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Tibetan manor tells story of past hardships, present happiness

Owing 37 manor houses, 12 farms and more than 3,000 serfs, the Tibetan noble family who lived in the Phalha Manor 60 years ago led an extravagant life, drinking French wine and smoking Indian cigarettes.

However, things have changed since the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951. The serfs who once accounted for more than 80 percent of the Tibetan population were emancipated in that year.

Located in Paljor Lhunpo Village, Gyangze County in Xigaze Prefecture, the Phalha Manor is the best-preserved Qing Dynasty manor in Tibet.

It was originally owned by the Phalha family, many of whom were senior officials in the Kashag governing council of Tibet during the Qing Dynasty and Republic of China.

Now the manor has been developed into a tourist attraction.

The 82-room manor has 5,000 square meters of grounds.

A guide named Drolma said the manor had a prison where serfs were kept. Bloodstains could still be seen on abandoned torture instruments.

“Tibetan nobles were drunk everyday and whipped their serfs for fun,” sighed Zhang Xuefeng, a tourist visiting the manor, “It is sad to imagine the hardships those serfs had to suffer.”

Migmar Dondrup, an old man in his seventies, was once a serf. “I had to work without food and suffer from the lashes,” he recalled with tears in his eyes.

Sixty years ago, Migmar Dondrup with his parents and wife were all kept as serfs in the Phalha Manor living in a shelter measuring merely 6.5 square meters. The only possession they owned was some broken bowls.

In contrast, Migmar and his family lived in a two-story Tibetan style building with an area of more than 400 square meters. They now have a farmland of 2 hectares yielding about 10,000 kilograms of grain per year.

They also raise many cattle from which they can make 50,000 yuan (7738 U.S. dollars) each year.

“Those unbearable memories have gone with the time,” Migmar Dondrup said with a smile and made a cup of buttered tea for himself.

Only the colorful prayer flags are still waving on the roof of the Phalha Manor like before.

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