Nature & WildlifeGlacial lake

Tso Lhamo Lake

Glacial lake at 5,100 metres in North Sikkim near the China border, the source of the Teesta

01 — The story

Tso Lhamo, also spelt Chho Lhamo or Cholamu, is a glacial freshwater lake at 5,100 metres in the Mangan district of North Sikkim, about 4 km south-west of the border with China. At that height it is among the highest lakes in the world. It lies north-east of the Kangchenjunga range on a high plateau that runs into the Tibetan Plateau.

Glacier water feeds the lake, and the Teesta River rises from it. The botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker wrote of it as Cholamoo lake. Gurudongmar Lake lies about 5 km to the west.

Unmapia

02 — About

Coming soon

We’re still writing about Tso Lhamo Lake: its history, what’s there and why it’s worth the trip.