Dalai Lamas are buried in Budhhist tombs known as stupas. There are eight such stupas at the Potala Palace, the largest being 50 ft tall. The profound symbolism of these bell-shaped towers is similar to that of the pyramids, a sacred mound of creation and cavernous burial place of royalty.
The Tibetan stupa was borrowed from India’s Buddhism and served 3 functions: Give divine political power, reliquary of holy elite, and reliquary of the overall temple.
The mandala is the starting point of the stupa, a circular “container of essence” or “wholeness of self.” “It was built upon the center of two intersecting lines, which were at right angles. The intersection of these two lines came to symbolize the confines of a diety.” a
As a dwelling place of the gods, temple symbolism pushed the Potala palace upward to the heavens. “The vertical axis, enhanced by the skylight rising like a turret on the summit of the temple, symbolizes the union of the earth and the sky. Therefore, the dwelling of the divinity is at the core of the cosmic mountain, in the luminous centre of these architectural mandalas.” b