They guarded the Potala Palace in this way: walked into the Maintenance Section of the Potala Palace Management Office

Almost everyone who walks into the Potala Palace will be blown away by this majestic building. After more than 1,300 years, the Potala Palace is still standing majestically, attracting a large number of tourists to visit.

The Potala Palace is built on a hill and its location is dangerous, so it is often attacked by various natural disasters, such as cracks in the walls and insect damage to the wood...... Fortunately, there is a group of guardians who pay silently, and they use their wisdom and sweat to guard this thousand-year-old ancient building and accompany it through ups and downs. These ordinary but great guardians come from the Maintenance Section of the Potala Palace Management Office (hereinafter referred to as the Maintenance Section of the Potala Palace).

Repair the cracks with "singing and dancing steps".

Five Tibetan female workers sang a song while ramming the gravel and soil under their feet with the tool "Boduo" in their hands, and the sound of wooden sticks ramming the earth was rhythmic, and the singing was unified with the pace, and they sang in chorus round after round. After several hours of non-stop beating on the ground, the stone-like "aga" was beaten to the ground. Dassan, a staff member of the maintenance department of the Potala Palace, told reporters that this was the masons team repairing the cracks on the ground of the Potala Palace by "beating aga".

In Tibetan building techniques, "Aga" is a method used to build roofs or grounds—Tibet's unique "Aga" soil is mixed with water, honey, ghee, etc., and then spread on the ground or roof, and then repeatedly rammed by hand until the "Aga" is smooth and solid. In order to make the ground smoother, the workers also wipe it repeatedly with elm bark, etc. In the end, the restored ground and roof have a light red color, which is solid, smooth and impermeable.

"This piece of ground is made of three layers of 'aga'." Gongjue Wangmu told reporters. The 47-year-old Gongjue Wangmu is a native of Gongga County, Shannan City, and has been working in the Potala Palace for 25 years since 1999. She told reporters that the lyrics sung during "Playing Aga" are relatively simple, mainly reflecting life scenes and praising labor, which is naturally produced in order to improve efficiency and enliven the atmosphere in labor.

In the past 25 years, from a newcomer with unfamiliar skills to the head of the mason team, Gongjue Wangmu and his colleagues have protected and restored the damaged roof, floor and walls of the Potala Palace. "We work with soil every day, and every time we see the cracks being repaired, I always feel a sense of pride in my heart." Gongjue Wangmu said that the roof made of "Aga" has special toughness, and even if the wooden beams supporting below are broken, the entire roof is not easy to collapse, and it is the strongest layer of armor in the Potala Palace.

Use the camera to check and record hidden dangers

In the early morning, the silent Potala Palace welcomed the first visitors of the day, and everyone excitedly took photos and marveled at the majesty and beauty of the building. While the tourists were busy admiring, Dasan carried his camera and shuttled through all corners of the Potala Palace. Unlike tourists, his camera focuses on walls, floors, and pillars again and again.

"The Potala Palace has a long history, and there is often some damage, such as cracked walls, broken wood or insect damage." "I need to take pictures of all of this and report it to my superiors in time so that the craftsmen can repair it as soon as possible." When the restoration work is completed, I will also take comparative photos to keep a record of the restoration. ”

Once upon a time, the young Dasan looked at the majestic Potala Palace and secretly decided that he would work here when he grew up. In 2013, 18-year-old Dasang decisively applied for the cultural and museum major of Minzu University of China and was successfully admitted. In 2018, Dasang joined the Potala Palace Management Office as a staff member of the Maintenance Section, responsible for the research, management and conservation of the Potala Palace complex. In the past 6 years, he has carried a camera to every corner of the Dala Palace, recording every damage and every repair, and has taken more than 30,000 photos so far.

Dasang told reporters that there are 75 people in the maintenance department of the Potala Palace, mainly responsible for the research, management, protection, repair and other work of the Potala Palace complex, which is divided into the repair group, the insect control office, and the office, of which the repair group is subdivided into the stonemason group, carpenter group, mason group, tailor group, etc., each group performs its own duties and jointly guards this "home".

Dealing with bugs with the "scientific method".

"Take a picture of this side." "Turn slowly, be careful." When the reporter arrived at a palace, Oujie Tsering was climbing a high shelf to check for insect damage on wooden components, and his apprentice Tashi Jia mistakenly used a flashlight to help him illuminate it. This year's 44-year-old Oujie Tsering is a staff member of the Insect Control Office of the Butala Palace Maintenance Department, and has been "catching insects" here for more than 10 years.

The Potala Palace is the largest and most intact ancient palace-style building complex in Tibet, and its building is a mixed structure of stone, earth and wood. In order to solve this hidden danger, in 2015, the maintenance department of the palace set up an insect control office, which has an insect control laboratory and a total of 3 staff members.

Tashi Qianjiao, the person in charge of the insect control office, introduced that since its establishment, the insect control laboratory has focused on the prevention and control of borers in the ancient building wood of the Potala Palace - from March to October every year, the implementation of insect control and insect control work of the entire building complex wood components, refining scientific prevention methods and insect control methods, systematically analyzing and sorting out the insect control methods, and completing the follow-up large-scale insect control assessment. At the same time, through the study of biological characteristics, new insect control methods such as raising larvae with broken wood chips, sealing wormholes with gums, and the combination of "one hole and one needle" control were tried to improve the control effect.

In recent years, the Insect Control Office of the Bugong Maintenance Section and the Tibet Institute of Plateau Biology have cooperated to carry out a series of related research work, through the combination of field investigation and indoor research, to collect and count the taxonomic, biological characteristics, community characteristics and corresponding control methods of wood pests, so as to make the prevention and control and management more scientific and efficient. "After several years of research, the insect control laboratory has achieved a series of valuable research results. We are confident that we can control the pests that harm wood components within a certain range. Tashi said.

Under the leadership of Dasang, the reporter and his entourage saw the work carried out by the mason team and the insect control office, and this is only the tip of the iceberg of the daily work of the maintenance department. At the same time, there are also stonemason groups, carpenter groups, tailor groups, etc., which carry out different maintenance and protection work on the Potala Palace every day. Everyone's daily work seems to be taking care of their own "home", every brick, stone, wall and pillar contains the hard work of all the staff. Dasan said that the regular inspection of the Potala Palace complex by the maintenance department has not changed for decades. "Through the inspection, we can find the problems existing in the building, and organize technicians to complete the daily maintenance in time, in order to ensure the durability of the building function, every year we repair hundreds of projects."

Standing majestically after wind and rain, the Potala Palace silently proves the significance of every craftsman in the maintenance department. "For me and my colleagues, the Potala Palace is our 'home', and we will continue to do a good job in the protection and inheritance of the Potala Palace." Dasan said.

Source: China Tibet News Network