World Tibet Network News Monday, February 23, 1998

Xinhua is the official news agency of the People's Republic of China

Lhasa, 23rd February: The delegation of US religious leaders arrived here this morning from Chengdu for a visit.

Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark and the Rev Don Argue, president of the National Association of

Evangelicals, visited the Norbulingka Palace in the western suburbs of this capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region this afternoon. Norbulingka, built in the 1740s and covering 36 ha, was the place where the Seventh Dalai Lama and his successors stayed in summer and handled government affairs.

The New Palace in Norbulingka was where the 14th [present] Dalai Lama spent three summers. It was built in 1956 with funds from the central government. The New Palace is famous for its valuable Tibetan-style murals. The visitors saw the murals which depict the journey of Princess Wencheng of the Tang dynasty (618-907) to Tibet to marry the Tibetan king, the meeting of Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) with the fifth Dalai Lama and the meeting of Chairman Mao Zedong with the 14th Dalai Lama in 1954. The visitors saw the throne and vestments belonging to the 14th Dalai Lama, and asked about the lives and political and religious activities of Dalai Lamas through the ages.