Lake Manasarovar

Lake Manasarovar (Sanskrit: मानसरोवर), also called mTsho Mapham (Tibetan: མ་ཕམ་གཡུ་མཚོ།, Wylie: ma pham g.yu mtsho) or mTsho Ma-dros-pa locally, is a high altitude freshwater lake fed by the Kailash Glaciers[1] near Mount Kailash in Burang County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibetan Autonomous Region. The lake along with Mount Kailash to its north are sacred sites in four religions: Bön, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.

The Sanskrit word “Manasarovar” (मानसरोवर) is a combination of two Sanskrit words; “Mānas” (मानस्) meaning “mind (in its widest sense as applied to all the mental powers), intellect, intelligence, understanding, perception, sense, conscience” while “sarovara” (सरोवर) means “a lake or a large pond deep enough for a lotus”.

It is located about 50 kilometers to the northwest of Nepal, about 100 kilometers east of Uttarakhand, and in the southwest region of Tibet near China National Highway 219. Lake Manasarovar lies at 4,590 m (15,060 ft) above mean sea level, a relatively high elevation for a large fresh water lake on the mostly saline lake-studded Tibetan Plateau. It freezes in the winter. According to Brockman, it is the highest freshwater lake in Asia.