In the early winter, just after the annual exterior wall painting project for the Potala Palace was completed, Tashi and his fellows, carrying paint buckets, carefully brushed fresh paint onto the ...

It's hard to miss Potala Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This grand, imposing structure stands more than 12,000 feet above sea level on Marpo-ri, or Red Hill, in the middle of central Lhasa.

Tashi, a craftsman from the maintenance unit of the Potala Palace's management office, performs a routine checkup at the palace in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, Dec. 4, 2024.