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Home Travel in Tibet Magic Tibet Ⅻ -- Yangzhuoyongcuo
Magic Tibet Ⅻ -- Yangzhuoyongcuo
Travel in Tibet

 Yangzhuoyongcuo
Yangzhuoyongcuo (yáng zhuó yōng cuò 羊卓雍错), 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 (làng qiǎ zǐ xiàn 浪卡子县). Over a period of Langqiazi after about 40km you can see the Ningjinkangsha Peak (níng jīn kàng shā fēng 宁金抗沙峰) nearby by taking this route.    

Yangzhuoyongcuo
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 (jiāng zī xiàn 江孜县) 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. 
 
altThe karuola glacier(kǎ ruò lā bīng chuā 卡若拉冰川) 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(jiāng sāng lā mǔ fēng 姜桑拉姆峰) and Jiegangsusong(jiě gāng sù sōng fēng 解岗速松峰), 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(sāng dīng 桑丁). 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.
 

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