Note 230 — LECTURE XV. Monasteries and Temples.

The hill is called Potala, and the palace-monastery is named after it. Koeppen says it has three peaks, but the illustration in Markham’s account of Manning’s journey (p. 256) shows three long summits rather than peaks. The hill is called Buddha-la by Huc (ii. 140), but Koeppen (ii. 341) is more correct in stating that Potala is the name of a sea-port on the river Indus, called Pattala by the Greeks, and now Tatta. There is a tradition that this Potala was the original home of the Ṡākya tribe (see p. 21 of this volume).