The Potala Palace rises thirteen stories from Marpo Ri, the red hill that dominates Lhasa, the structure that held the Dalai Lamas' government and residence until 1959. The palace that Tibetan legend says was begun by Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century, that the 5th Dalai Lama rebuilt in the 17th, that the 14th Dalai Lama fled in 1959 - the Potala is Tibet's symbol and its absence of leader its tragedy.

The palace is now museum, the rooms where Dalai Lamas lived and ruled preserved for visitors who climb the stairs that altitude makes exhausting. The chapels that still hold devotions, the tombs that still receive offerings, the tour groups that Chinese regulations limit - the Potala is what Tibet was and what Tibet under Chinese administration displays.

The Jokhang Temple is Tibetan Buddhism's holiest site, the temple that the 7th century king built to house the Buddha image that his Chinese princess brought. The pilgrims who prostrate around the Barkhor circuit that encircles the temple, the butter lamps that devotion lights, the image that faith believes is Buddha himself - the Jokhang is where Tibetan devotion concentrates.

The Jokhang survived the Cultural Revolution's destruction that leveled monasteries across Tibet, the temple's importance somehow protecting what ideology should have destroyed. The temple functions as it has for thirteen centuries, the monks who serve it, the pilgrims who visit it, the faith that both express unchanged by the political changes that surround it.

Lhasa's altitude of 3,650 meters is what visitors feel before they see anything - the breathlessness that thin air creates, the headaches that altitude sickness brings, the adjustment that days require. The altitude that makes Lhasa challenging is also what makes it special - the light that thin air clarifies, the sky that seems closer, the sense of elevation that geography provides.

The altitude requires acclimatization that visitors often don't allow, the urge to see everything conflicting with the body's need to adjust. The slow pace that altitude enforces, the rest that exertion requires - Lhasa teaches patience that lowland cities don't demand.

Lhasa's politics are inescapable - the Chinese administration that controls what can be seen and said, the Tibetan identity that persists despite pressure, the tension that visitors sense without always understanding. The self-immolations that have occurred, the restrictions that tighten around sensitive anniversaries, the permits that visiting requires - Lhasa is political in ways that make it different from other destinations.

The politics shape what visitors experience - the guides that regulations require, the topics that cannot be discussed, the surveillance that technology enables. The politics also shape what Tibetans experience - the restrictions that daily life brings, the development that changes their city, the identity that persistence maintains.

The monasteries that surround Lhasa - Sera, Drepung, Ganden - were among the world's largest, the institutions that trained monks who governed Tibet. The Cultural Revolution destroyed much and killed many; what has been rebuilt is fraction of what was. The monks who remain, the debates that Sera still hosts, the teachings that continue - the monasteries survive because faith survives.

The monasteries are what visitors see after the Potala and Jokhang - the complexes where Tibetan Buddhism developed its distinctive character, the institutions that created the scholars and the practices. The monasteries are diminished but not extinguished; the faith that built them builds them still.