A woman carrying her child on the streets of Lhasa. Lhasa's history is the history of Tibet. Since it became capital of the country when it was first unified under Sontsa Gampo, losing its importance with the collapse of Tibet in the ninth century. Never be the capital until 1642 when the Fifth Dalai Lama to ascend to power. Under the leadership of this ruler is when building the Lhasa currently being visited, as it was during his years in office when they got the most representative buildings of the city, including the Potala Palace and other monasteries. Since then its importance will grow. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was not only the political and religious center of Tibet, but also the economic center they were headed the caravan of merchants and the place where the nobles sent their children to live with the hope of favors Government or any of the great monasteries. The only major population center halfway across the country, has suffered in recent years of Chinese emigration, with important positions in the administration and the military, creating in fact two cities. The traditional city, Tibetan, and modern, and China.