Yamdrok Lake

Seen from the Kamba La pass at 4,794 metres, Yamdrok Lake appears suddenly below the road as a long ribbon of improbable turquoise, winding between bare brown hills with snow peaks behind. It is one of the largest lakes in southern Tibet — about 638 square kilometres, stretching for more than 72 km — but it never shows itself all at once. Its many arms and inlets twist around peninsulas and islands, so that from the air it resembles a coiled scorpion, while Tibetans have long compared it to a turquoise earring dropped by a goddess.

The lake lies at about 4,440 metres, with an average depth of around 30 metres and a maximum near 60. The colour changes through the day and with the weather, from pale milky blue to a saturated green-blue under a clear sky. Further west along the road, beyond Nangartse, the glaciated massif of Noijin Kangsang, a little over 7,200 metres, rises above the Karo La. Islands in the lake serve as summer pasture for herders, and fish caught here are sold in the markets of Lhasa.

Yamdrok is one of the four great holy lakes of Tibet, together with Namtso, Manasarovar and Lhamo La-tso, and is said to be the dwelling of a protective goddess. Tradition links it with Padmasambhava, the eighth-century master credited with bringing Buddhism to Tibet. On a hill near the shore stands Samding Monastery, notable as the seat of the only female line of reincarnated lamas in Tibet, the Samding Dorje Phagmo; the community there is small, a few dozen monks and nuns. An old fort, Pede Dzong, crumbles on the lakeside nearby.

The lake also has a modern chapter: a hydropower station near the village of Baidi, planned in the 1980s and finished in the 1990s, draws on its water. Tibetan opposition to using a holy lake this way halted construction for a time, and critics warned that it would lower the water level. For a visitor, though, what remains is the sweep of colour and silence from the pass, and the lonely shoreline road that follows its arms.

Getting there

The lake lies about 114 km by road southwest of Lhasa, in Shannan (Lhoka) prefecture; the small town of Quxu (Chushul) is about 42 km away. Lhasa Gonggar International Airport (LXA) is about 39 km from the lake. Most visitors come by road from Lhasa on the highway towards Gyantse, which climbs over the Kamba La and then runs along the shore to the town of Nangartse.