The Zhol outer pillar, or Doring Chima, is a stone pillar which stands outside the historical residential and administrative Zhol village below the Potala Palace, in Lhasa, Tibet. It was erected to commemorate a 783 border treaty between the Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty. The pillar is inscribed with an old example of Tibetan writing.
The Potala adorned with two Buddhist silk banners, Koku (gos sku), for the Sertreng ceremony with the Zhol outer pillar in the foreground in 1949.
1936-1937
1938
1938
Zhol Village, or Shol 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.
The Potala in 2008 with the towers and walls of Zhol beneath but without the outer Zhol, razed in 1995.
The Potala Palace in 1938 with the inner and outer parts of Zhol village in the lower foreground.
Inner Zhol was the sliver of low houses lying outside the western part of the south wall.
The outer and inner monoliths as drawn by Sarat Chandra Das in 1902.