Zhol Village

The Potala in 2008 with the towers and walls of Zhol beneath but without the outer Zhol, razed in 1995.

Zhol Village, or Shol Village (Chinese: 雪城; often transcribed as Zhöl or Shöl Village), is a village at the base of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. It contained the residences and administrative buildings of Ganden Phodrang's government officials and other Tibetans. It was a favorite haunt of the 6th Dalai Lama. Two stone pillars are found around or in the village: the outer pillar, which is located outside the southern entrance and bears the oldest inscriptions in Tibetan, and the inner pillar, which stands beneath stairs leading to the Potala and has no inscription.