Potala Palace Renovation To Cost $7.2m
(AP | Beijing | November 20, 1992)
The discovery of more damage to a 1,300-year-old Tibetan palace has added an extra year and $3.6 million to a renovation project, officials said Friday. It is largest renovation ever undertaken in China, said Zhang Deqin, general director of the State Bureau of Cultural Relics.
The white-and-maroon Potala Palace has 1,00,000 rooms stacked 13 stories high atop a hill overlooking Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. It was built in the 7th century as a pavilion and enlarged in the 17th century. Work on the palace, once home to Tibet's god-king, Dalai Lama, began in October 1989 and was scheduled for completion next year at a cost of $7.2 million.
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