The summer palace of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan version of the Summer Palace

Norbulingka, meaning Treasure Garden, is located in the western suburbs of Lhasa, Tibet. It was built in the 1740s and is the place where the Dalai Lama of all ages spent the summer and managed politics. It is a typical Tibetan-style garden, the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units, and world cultural heritage. Norbulingka was originally a shrub forest, where the old course of the Lhasa River passed. The river here is winding and the water flow is gentle. The summer dike grass and bank willow are reflected in it, and the scenery is beautiful. The Seventh Dalai Lama, Gelsang Gyatso, often came here to set up tents to spend the summer during his study at Drepung Monastery. Later, because the Seventh Dalai Lama liked and often came to this place, the Qing Dynasty's resident minister in Tibet ordered some tents to be set up near the spring for the Dalai Lama to rest and recite sutras. This is the earliest origin of Norbulingka. After more than 200 years of expansion, Norbulingka covers an area of 360,000 square meters (exactly half the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing). There are more than 100 kinds of plants in the garden, not only common flowers and trees in Lhasa, but also strange flowers and weeds from the southern and northern foothills of the Himalayas, as well as precious flowers transplanted from the mainland or introduced from abroad, which can be called a plateau botanical garden. The buildings are mainly composed of Gelsang Pozhang, Golden Pozhang, and Datan Mingjiu Pozhang (Pozhang means palace in Tibetan), with 374 rooms, which is the largest, most scenic, and most historic garden in Tibet. Norbulingka is really big, and there is quite a distance between each palace. It is strongly recommended to take a sightseeing car for a tour, which takes about 1.5-2 hours. If you choose to walk, it is said that it will take five or six hours to finish. After all, it is on the plateau of 3650 meters, and Lhasa has so many attractions, it is better to spend money to buy relaxation and save some energy