Historic site · TIBET AUTONOMOUS REGION · UNESCO
Norbulingka
罗布林卡 · Luóbùlínkǎ
About
Summer palace of the Dalai Lamas in western Lhasa. UNESCO-listed; gardens, pavilions, the rooms where the 14th Dalai Lama lived before his exile.
Norbulingka ('Jewel Park') was built from 1755 onward as the summer palace of successive Dalai Lamas. The 36-hectare gardens contain multiple palace pavilions plus large tree groves used for picnics during the Sho Dun festival each summer. The Takten Migyur Phodrang, the New Summer Palace built 1954–56 for the 14th Dalai Lama, contains the rooms where he lived before his 1959 exile. UNESCO-listed in 2001 as an extension of the Potala Palace.
How to get there
Walking from western Lhasa hotels.
When to visit
Summer for the Sho Dun festival; otherwise mornings.
Gallery
Other attractions in Lhasa
Itineraries featuring this site
- Tibet — 8 days with permit guidance
8d · Lhasa, Yamdrok, Shigatse and Gyantse — the standard agency-tour Tibet circuit.
- Tibetan Plateau — Lhasa, Shigatse and Everest Base Camp, 10 days
10d · Ten days on the Tibetan Plateau visiting Lhasa's monasteries and palaces, the Tashilhunpo at Shigatse, and the Rongbuk Monastery approach to Everest Base Camp — with practical permit guidance.
- Overnight train romance — soft-sleeper journeys across China, 10 days
10d · Ten days structured around China's overnight soft-sleeper trains — Beijing to Xi'an, Xi'an to Chengdu, Chengdu to Lhasa — experiencing the transition from one landscape to the next at a human pace, through the night.
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