Home to the holy

Nanshan Park

Nanshan's prominences become the city's easels at dawn and dusk, luring dozens of painters and photographers. The Potala Palace glows on the watercolor horizon and its dreamlike reflection shivers across the Lhasa River's ripples.

These once-barren, sallow slopes have taken on new life as a verdant woodland where cedar, pine and spruce jostle for sunshine, thanks to a 500 million yuan ($69.4 million) reforestation project. Now, the leaves of over one million trees applaud the breezes as they flutter like the prayer flags that dangle above traditional tents and mani stones inscribed with scriptures.

Princess Wencheng

History dances to life every evening in a vast amphitheater, where 800 performers put on the musical drama, Princess Wencheng, that tells the story of her journey to Tubo to wed King Songtsen Gampo. The production is epic, not only in terms of story but also in scale. It fuses ancient folklore with cutting-edge stagecraft, and unfolds in front of massive replicas of Jokhang and Potala.

It unfolds in five acts that embed the plot within traditional culture: Charm of Ancient Tang Dynasty, Buddhist Music of Heaven and Earth, Great Beauty of Tibetan Dance, God of the Plateau and Harmonious Beauty Between Tibetan and Han.

This epic echoes through the ages, resonating until today.