Phoksundo Lake
Interesting facts
- A 2004 echo-sounding survey put the lake's depth at 145 metres; a more detailed 2019 survey revised the figure to about 136 metres.
- Phoksundo holds an estimated 409 million cubic metres of water, released through its outlet at roughly 3.7 cubic metres per second.
- The lake is oligotrophic, meaning its water is poor in nutrients and supports very little plant growth.
- A 2019 to 2022 study found snow leopards in the surrounding park at a density of about 2.2 animals per 100 square kilometres.
- Shey Gompa, the park's best-known monastery, stands at about 4,200 metres and its name means the Crystal Monastery.
- A festival called Shey Mela is held at Shey Gompa only once every twelve years.
- Peter Matthiessen's book The Snow Leopard recounts his 1973 trek with the biologist George Schaller across Dolpo to Shey Gompa.
- Éric Valli's 1999 film Himalaya, cast largely with Dolpo villagers, became the first Nepalese film nominated for an Academy Award.
- The Suligad river leaving the lake flows south to join the Thuli Bheri, while the Langu drains the high Dolpo plateau to the north-east.
Why it is worth it
Phoksundo is a lake of startling colour in one of the most remote corners of Nepal. Lying at about 3,600 metres in Dolpa district, its deep turquoise water fills a narrow valley beneath glaciated peaks, stretching for about 5.6 km and covering roughly 490 hectares. A 2019 survey by Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology measured its greatest depth at about 136 metres.
The lake owes its existence to a landslide. Some 30,000 to 40,000 years ago a mass of rock and debris blocked the valley, and the water rose behind it. On top of that natural dam stands Ringmo, a village of Tibetan heritage with a seasonal population of around 200, whose people follow the Bön faith and live from trade, yak herding and tourism; a Bön temple stands just outside the village. Below the dam, the river flowing out of the lake, the Suligad, plunges about 167 metres in a waterfall. More than twenty stupas line the northern part of the shore, and a gompa on the eastern side is the scene of annual prayers.
Phoksundo is the centrepiece of Shey Phoksundo National Park, established in 1984 and covering 3,555 square kilometres. It is Nepal's largest national park and its only trans-Himalayan one, reaching north to the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, with elevations from about 2,100 metres to the 6,883-metre summit of Kanjiroba Himal. Snow leopards live here in notable numbers, with a 2019 to 2022 study counting 90, alongside bharal, Himalayan tahr, musk deer and grey wolves. The park also contains Shey Gompa, founded in the 11th century. The lake itself was listed as a Ramsar wetland in 2007.
Getting there
The usual approach is by air to Dolpa Airport (DOP) at Juphal, about 28 km south-west of the lake in a straight line, which has flights from Nepalgunj, followed by a trek north to Ringmo at the southern end of the lake. The airport nearest in a straight line on a map, Pokhara (PKR), is about 150 km away on the far side of the Dhaulagiri range, and the nearest sizeable town, Baglung, is about 120 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Phoksundo Lake is an alpine fresh water oligotrophic lake in Nepal's Shey Phoksundo National Park at an elevation of 3,611.5 m (11,849 ft) in the Dolpa District. Phoksundo Lake is 494 ha (1.91 sq mi) in size with a water volume of 409,000,000 m3 (1.44×1010 cu ft) and a discharge of 3.715 m3/s (131.2 cu ft/s). In 2004, a survey by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology measured the maximum depth of the lake at 145 m (476 ft). In 2019, another detailed survey was carried out by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, which measured the maximum depth of the lake at 136.20 m (446.9 ft).
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