Pargo Kaling

Photo of Lhasa's Western Gateway taken during the British expedition to Tibet, in 1903-1904.
1932 map of Lhasa with descriptions in Czech and English. The Pargo Kaling Gate is located on the west side (left side) of this map next to the Potala Palace.
Map of Lhassa by Nikita Bichurin (first half of the 19th century). The Western Gate's three chortens can be seen in the left lower corner.

The Pargo Kaling (Tibetan: བར་སྒོ་བཀག་གླིང, Wylie: bar sgo bkag gling) was a large chorten straddling across the road leading from Drepung between the Potala's Red Hill (Marpori) and the Iron Hill (Chagpori) at Lhasa, Tibet, and containing a through-passage or archway for people and animals. It formed the "Western Gate" of the city and led into the village of Shol. It was destroyed in 1967,[1] but the Lhasa authorities had it rebuilt in 1995.[2][3][4]

  1. ^ André Alexander, The Traditional Lhasa House: Typology of an Endangered Species, LIT Verlag Münster, 2013, 409 pages, p. 54: "In 1948, [...] There were no more city walls, but two gates. One was the Drakgo-kaling, a gate consisting of three stupa monuments located between the Potala Palace and Chakpori Hill (demolished in 1967 and rebuilt in 1995). The other was located at the western edge of the central urban cluster, from where one had to cross a bridge and pass by the important Western Rigsum Gonpo temple in order to reach the Potala."
  2. ^ Clare Harris, The Museum of the Roof of the World: Art, Politics, and the Representation of Tibet, University of Chicago Press, 2012, 314 p., p. 199: "The Lhasa authorities have made some attempt to reinstate it [the view] by rebuilding the three stupas of the Pargo Kaling (Western Gate) that was destroyed in the 1960s."
  3. ^ Lhasa map: 1980: "In 1980, [...] The old city gate, in the form of a Buddhist stupa, has disappeared."
  4. ^ Lhasa Map: 1998: "A replica of the old city gate has been built at the original site."