The historical seat of the Dali Lama, the Potala Place, sits above Lhasa before the austere mountains of Tibet.
The Buddhist Wheel of Law or Dharma Chakra. This symbol is atop Tibetan monasteries like a steeple or a cross for a Christian church. After his attainment of enlightenment, Shakyamuni Buddha gave his first sermon in Deer Park near Sarnath in India. This sermon is known as the first turning of the wheel of law. In this case the term law has a broad meaning embracing universal truth. The moment of the "turning of the wheel" signifies an epochal, transformative change with universal implications. This photograph shows the wheel of law on the roof of the Jokhang Monastery, the most important monastery of Tibetan Buddhism. It is located in central Lhasa. A fading full moon is visible in the upper right.
For eons Tibetans practiced Bon, an animistic religion with many dieties and magical or tantric practices. When Buddhism came to Tibet, Buddhist teachings and Bon practices became interwoven making Tibetan Buddhism particularly complex and culturally deep.
The Dali Lama has been advised on key matters of state and religion for centuries by the State Oracle who lived at the Nechung Monastery. This statue depicts a nineteenth-century Nechung State Oracle named Śākya Yarpel. There is nothing about this statute, with its skulls in the headdress, that conveys the acceptance or contemplative serenity of traditional Buddhism. This statute, I believe, reflects the Bon heritage.
When the Dali Lama fled Tibet in 1959, the State Oracle at the time fled with him.
At the Ganden Mnastery yak oil flames light an altar of Tsongkhapa and two of his disciples. Tsongkhapa is the founder of the Gelugpa Order of Tibetan Buddhism, to which the current Dali Lama belongs. The monastery, about 30 miles outside of Lhasa, was founded in 1409. It is said that as a boy in a previous life, Tsongkhapa gave a crystal rosary directly to the Buddha. Buddha prophesied that the boy would found a monastery. He gave the boy a conch shell but asked one of his disciples to bury it in Tibet After Tsongkhapa founded the Ganden monastery, he went to a place on the site and dug up the shell. The shell is presently located at the Drepung Monastery in Lhasa.