Qualla: Yamdrok Lake

Yamdrok Lake: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit K.M.Dass, CC BY-SA 4.0. From the Kamba La pass, the lake appears suddenly below -- an improbable turquoise against brown hillsides, as though someone had poured dye into the mountains. Yamdrok Lake stretches more than 72 kilometers across the Tibetan plateau at 4,441 meters elevation, its fan-shaped body spreading south while narrowing to the north, its shoreline so crenulated with bays and inlets that it seems to grip the land like a hand. Tibetans say the lake is the transformation of a goddess. The color, that impossible turquoise, comes from dissolved minerals suspended in water fed only by rain and snowmelt -- a nearly closed system where what enters through streams departs through evaporation, concentrating minerals until the water glows.

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Image: K.M.Dass | CC BY-SA 4.0

Yamdrok Lake: The Wrathful Guardian

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Christopher Michel, CC BY 2.0. Yamdrok Lake is one of Tibet's four "Great Wrathful Lakes," sacred bodies of water believed to be the dwelling places of protective deities invested with special spiritual powers. Its guardian is the goddess Dorje Gegkyi Tso, and the lake is considered divinatory -- used by every...

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Image: Christopher Michel | CC BY 2.0

Yamdrok Lake: Altitude and Extremes

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit travel oriented from Manila, Philippines, CC BY-SA 2.0. At nearly four and a half kilometers above sea level, Yamdrok Lake exists in a climate of extremes. Winters are long, cold, and very dry; the lake freezes over entirely. Summers are short, cool, and wet. The difference between day and night temperatures is dramatic -- warm sunlig...

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Image: travel oriented from Manila, Philippines | CC BY-SA 2.0

Yamdrok Lake: Fish Markets and Pasture Islands

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ernst Schäfer, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. Yamdrok Lake is not only sacred -- it is economically vital. From April to October, fishermen work the lake's shoals, selling their catch at markets in Lhasa. The islands that dot the lake serve double duty as rich pasture land, where local herdsmen graze their animals on grasses...

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Image: Ernst Schäfer | CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Yamdrok Lake: A Lake Under Pressure

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit B_cool from SIN, Singapore, CC BY 2.0. Near the small village of Baidi at the lake's western end, the Yamdrok Hydropower Station began generating electricity in the late 1990s -- the largest power station in Tibet. The project drew water from the lake through tunnels to turbines below, discharging it into the Yarlung ...

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Image: B_cool from SIN, Singapore | CC BY 2.0