Source: CCTV.com

03-26-2009 16:46

Jiayang used to be the Director of the Restoration Department at Potala Palace. Now, walking around Potala Palace has become a part of his life.

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The Potala Palace is located at an altitude of over 3,700 meters. It also occupies over 360 thousand square meters -- making it the highest and largest group of palace buildings. The Potala Palace is also a special sanctuary for Tibetan people and many consider it the symbol of Tibet. From its construction in 1645, it had never expereinced any major renovation.

Jiayang can still clearly remember what the Potala Palace looked like when he saw it 20 years ago. But eventually, the moment that Jiayang was longng for -- finally came. On October 11th, the first session of the project began. Because the Potala Palace was made of wood -- the first difficulty they faced was bristletail.

To keep the original appearance of the relics during the restoration process, they tried not to use new wood. The humidity of new wood was seriously limited due to antisepsis. And old wood was processed with medicament. Statistics showed the process of wood rotting took over one year, costing several million yuan.