Norbulingka, Summer palace in Lhasa, China.

Norbulingka is a 36-hectare palace and park complex on the bank of the Kyichu River, about 3 km west of the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Its 374 rooms are grouped in five main building clusters, among them the 1751 three-storey Kelsang Potrang, the lakeside Tsokyi Potrang of 1784, the 1922 Golden Potrang and the 1954 Takten Migyur Potrang, or New Palace. The photograph shows a two-storey pavilion with a red and gold ornamented roof, a balcony with a yellow railing and potted plants, and a band of white fabric panels with a diamond emblem, animal motifs and a wheel above a red lower wall reached by broad steps from a courtyard with a tiered white stone fountain.

The 7th Dalai Lama began building here in 1755 on scrubland used for a summer spring cure, and the park and summer palace were completed in 1783 under the 8th Dalai Lama. The 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas added most of the standing structures, including the 1922 Golden Palace and the 1954 new palace. On 17 March 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama left this palace for India during a dust storm.

Norbulingka means "Jewel Garden" in Tibetan, from nor bu (jewel) and lingka, the word used across Tibet for horticultural parks. Each summer the Sho Dun, or Yoghurt Festival, fills the grounds with dancing, singing and families camping for days behind windbreaks of rugs and scarves. The 13th Dalai Lama's Kelsang Potrang hall holds a central throne and some hundred thangkas on its walls.

The complex lies about 3 km west of the Potala Palace on the bank of the Kyichu River, at an elevation of 3,650 m; the east gate was traditionally the main entrance. The grounds cover 36 hectares, so allow time to walk between the five building groups, from Gesang Phodrang in the east to Golden Phodrang in the west. The park is used for picnics and, in early August, for the Sho Dun festival, when families camp in the grounds.

The New Palace (Tadden Mingyur Podrang), built in 1954 for the 14th Dalai Lama, holds 301 murals in its assembly hall tracing Tibetan origins, the Tibetan kings and the founders of the Nyingma, Kadam, Sakya, Kagyu and Gelug schools. A lacquer screen given by the Chinese central government still hangs in his reception room.