Highlights of Tibet Group Tours – Namtso Lake

When taking a Tibet group tour, it will help you to enjoy a better travel to know the highlights of Tibet before you go. Namtso means heavenly lake, spirit lake or holy lake. It is the notable holy land of Tibetan Buddhism. The Buddhists honor it as one of the four great lakes. It is located between Damxung County of Lhasa and Baingoin County of Nagqu Prefecture.

Brief Introduction of Namtso Lake

The altitude of the surface is 4718 meters high above the sea level. It covers 1920 square kilometers and it is 70 kilometers long from the west to the east and 30 kilometers from the south to the north. It is the second largest salt water lake in China and the salt water lake of the highest altitude in the world. The deepest point is about 33 meters. Its purity and broadness live up to the reputation of heavenly lake. Its colors are changeable. It changes with blue, green and grey. It has another Mongolian name called Tengri Nor. Some people say that it is in fact an inland sea. Namtso Lake is rich in Brachymystax lenok and alepidote fish. The scenery of the lake is beautiful and spectacular.

The Namtso Lake and Buddhism

As a holy lake, it is animate. It belongs to sheep in the Chinese Zodiac. In every sheep year, the holy lake opens for celebration. Thousands of pilgrims come to Namtso Lake from Tibet or other places. They circle around the mountain and lake, burn joss sticks to worship the Buddha. The devout Buddhists honor the lake as Spirit Lake. Buddhists even from India and Nepal come to Namtso Lake for pilgrimage.Prayer Stones, the sacrificial altars, spread all over the lakeside of the Namtso Lake. As time goes by, piles of Prayer Stones stack up to walls which are as long as hundreds of meters, and as tall as a person. Every time the Buddhists meet the Prayer Stones, they will throw a pebble. Throwing a pebble means reciting the scriptures once. There hang blue, white, red, green and yellow cloths on the Prayer Stones. The cloths swing with the wind. The cloths wing once means transferring the scriptures to the Heaven once. The height of Prayer Stones increase year by year.