Holy Lake of Tibet—Yangzhuoyongcuo
By admin on 2014-12-19

Yangzhuoyongcuo, the Tibetan word for "swan pond", is one of the three Holy lakes in Tibet. It’s 4441m height above sea level, 130 km length from east to west, 70 meters wide north-south, the total length Lakeshore line is 250 km, with a total area of 638 square km, and a depth of 20-40m. Yangzhuoyongcuo is the biggest island lake on the northern foot of the Himalayas. The lake has many forks looks like the branches of coral so it is called ‘the lake of coral above’. There are more than 10 islands located in the lake, the biggest island can live five or six families and the smallest ones are just over hundreds square meters. Yangzhuoyongcuo is also the biggest habitat of water birds in southern Tibet. Birds migrate here during winters, there are swans, water pigeons, and yellow ducks, ospreys and Bar-headed Goose live in the heart of the lake. It’ll take you 30min from the foot of the mountain to the bank of the lake. And then, you can go along the bank to see the great views of the lake. You won’t pass it until 60km away near Langqiazi. Over a period of Langqiazi after about 40km you can see the Ningjinkangsha Peak nearby by taking this route.

The mountain which separate Yaluzangbu river and Yangzhuoyongcuo is Laguigangri Mountain. It lasts more than 360km and the main peak of it is Ningjinkangsha Peak. The peak is above the holy lake so it is called ‘Ningjinkangsha’ which means the Yecha God lives on the noble mountain. It is 7206m above the sea level and located in the junction of Jiangzi and Langqiazi. There are more than 10 peaks which are higher than 6000m located around Ningjinkangsha and it’s one of the hugest four mountains.　
　
The karuola glacier which located to the south of Ningjinkangsha has been extended to the end of the road in less than 300 meters, in which almost no tourists can resist the temptation of being so close to the great mountain. Many travelers will stop here and take pictures with yaks around.

There are also many famous peaks located to the west of the lake, such as Jiangsanglamu and Jiegangsusong etc. They are all the great places for tourism, climbing and adventure. On National Day in 2001, the Mountain Climbing Day was holding on Jiangsanglamu Peak, that’s a good training base for fresh players.

In the west of the southern coast of the lake, 10 km away from Nagarze, there’s a famous temple called Sangding. Sangding Temple has as long as 300 years of history, the Living Buddha reincarnation system of inheritance has continued for 11 generations. The most interesting point is that Sangding Temple is the only female living Buddha temple in Tibet, in addition to the temple host; all of the clergies are men.