The Potala Palace in the heart of Lhasa is the highest-altitude palace complex in the world. As a treasure of Chinese heritage and a marvel of world architecture, it's one of Xizang's most iconic cultural symbols.

In 2026, Xizang is marking the 75th anniversary of its peaceful liberation. Over the past 75 years, the region has worked hard to preserve its unique cultural heritage. At the Potala Palace, recent years have witnessed a major advance in the protection of its artifacts.

Technology empowerment: From passive protection to proactive prevention

In 2012, the Potala Palace and Beijing Jiaotong University began developing a platform to monitor in real time the palace's wooden structures, walls and foundations, as well as local mountain subsidence and water level changes.

Dawa Yangzom, a staff member at the Potala Palace Heritage Monitoring Center, explained, "The architectural monitoring system has transformed our work from a passive approach – intervening only after risks emerge – to proactive prevention, allowing us to identify potential problems in advance through data analysis and address them in a timely manner. This represents a major shift in management practices."

Fire safety: A 40-year record of zero incidents

Fire prevention is among the top priorities in ensuring the safety of the Potala Palace. Risks are eliminated at source by prohibiting flammable and explosive materials from entering the site. The use of butter lamps and the burning of incense are strictly supervised.

Fire alarm systems and smart electricity monitoring devices have been installed, enabling remote early warning in the event of a problem. In addition, a daily round of inspections has been instituted, conducted by a 20-strong team of security personnel, electricians, firefighters and butter lamp attendants, who carefully examine every area of the palace after it closes each day.

Thanks to such stringent protection work, the Potala Palace has maintained a remarkable record of zero fire incidents for 40 consecutive years.

Refined management: Building a comprehensive cultural relics archive 

The Potala Palace, the "Pearl on the Roof of the World," houses a vast collection of cultural relics, including statues of the Buddha, ancient manuscripts, Thangka paintings, traditional costumes and porcelain artifacts.

In recent years, the palace has adopted a more sophisticated approach to managing its cultural treasures. It has set up dedicated storage facilities based on the category of individual items and the materials they are made of. It has also established a system under which all its artifacts are registered.

Restoration, preventive preservation and digitization projects are other means by which the Potala Palace conserves its cultural treasures, in particular its trove of palm-leaf manuscripts.