Pangong Tso or Pangong Lake (; ; hi, text=पैंगोंग झील) is an

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

spanning eastern

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu a ...

and

West Tibet West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

situated at an elevation of . It is long and divided into five sublakes, called ''Pangong Tso'', ''Tso Nyak'', ''Rum Tso'' (twin lakes) and ''Nyak Tso''. Approximately 50% of the length of the overall lake lies within Tibet in China, 40% in Ladakh, India and the remaining 10% is disputed and is a de-facto buffer zone between India and China. The lake is wide at its broadest point. All together it covers almost 700 km². During winter the lake freezes completely, despite being

saline water Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly sodium chloride). On the United States Geological Survey (USGS) salinity scale, saline water is saltier than brackish water ...

. It has a land-locked basin separated from the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmi ...

basin by a small elevated ridge, but is believed to have been part of the latter in prehistoric times.

Names

Historically, the lake is viewed as being made up five sublakes, which are connected through narrow water channels. The name ''Pangong Tso'' only applied to the westernmost lake that is mostly in Ladakh. The main lake on the Tibetan side is called Tso Nyak (the "middle lake"). It is followed by two small lakes called Rum Tso. The last lake near Rutog is called Nyak Tso again. The whole lake group was and is still often referred to as Tsomo Nganglha Ringpo () in Tibetan. There are different interpretations on the meanings of both ''Pangong Tso'' and ''Tsomo Nganglha Ringpo''. The Ladakh government website indicates "Pangong Tso" is Tibetan meaning "high grassland lake", however

travel books The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern ...

from decades back say Pangong means "hollow". ''Tsomo Nganglha Ringpo'' is Tibetan that is interpreted to mean various different but similar meanings -- "long, narrow, enchanted lake" by Chinese media sources, "female narrow very long lake" by early European explorers, and "long-necked swan lake" by other modern sources.

Geography

Sino-Indian border dispute

Pangong Tso is in disputed territory. The

Line of Actual Control The Line of Actual Control (LAC), in the context of the Sino-Indian border dispute, is a notional demarcation lineAnanth KrishnanLine of Actual Control , India-China: the line of actual contest, 13 June 2020: "In contrast, the alignment of ...

(LAC) passes through the lake. A section of the lake approximately 20 km east from the LAC is controlled by China but claimed by India. The eastern end of the lake is in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. After the mid-19th century, Pangong Tso was at the southern end of Johnson Line, an early attempt at demarcation between India and China in the

Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China as part of Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang and Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet. It is claimed by India to be a part of its Leh District, Ladakh Union Territory. It is a part of t ...

region. The Khurnak Fort lies on the northern bank of the lake, about halfway of Pangong Tso. The Chinese has controlled the Khurnak Fort area since 1958. To the south is the smaller

Spanggur Tso Spanggur Tso, also called Maindong Tso, Mendong Tso, is a saltwater lake in Rutog County in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, close to the border with Ladakh. India claims a major portion of the lake as its own territory, as part of Ladakh. ...

lake. On 20 October 1962, Pangong Tso saw military action during the

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibet ...

, successful for the Chinese

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the China, People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five Military branch, service branches: the People's ...

(PLA). The area remains a sensitive border point along the LAC. Incursions from the Chinese side are common. In August 2017, Indian and Chinese forces near Pangong Tso engaged in

melee A melee ( or , French: mêlée ) or pell-mell is disorganized hand-to-hand combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts. In military aviation, a melee has been defined as " air battle in which ...

involving kicking, punching, rock throwing, and usage of makeshift weapons such as sticks and rods. On 11 September 2019, PLA troops confronted Indian troops on the northern bank. On 5–6 May 2020, a face-off between about 250 Indian and Chinese troops near the lake resulted in casualties on both sides. On 29–30 August 2020, Indian troops occupied many heights on the south bank of Pangong Tso. The heights mentioned include Rezang La, Reqin La, Black Top, Hanan, Helmet,

Gurung Hill Gurung Hill is a mountain near the Line of Actual Control between the Indian- and Chinese-administered portions of Ladakh near the village of Chushul and the Spanggur Lake. As of 2020, the Line of Actual Control runs on the north–south ridgel ...

, Gorkha Hill and Magar Hill. Some of these heights are in the grey zone of the LAC and overlook Chinese camps. India chose to pull back from these positions as leverage for larger disengagement. China is constructing a bridge across the lake. Both the Chinese and Indian militaries have vessels stationed on the lake.

Tourism

On the Indian side, an

Inner Line Permit Inner Line Permit (ILP) is an official travel document issued by the concerned state government to allow inward travel of an Indian citizen into a protected area for a limited period. It is obligatory for Indian citizens from outside those state ...

is required to visit the lake as it lies on the Sino-Indian

. For security reasons, India does not permit boating. Groups are permitted, accompanied by an accredited guide. China National Highway 219 passes by the eastern end of Pangong Tso. The lake can be accessed by driving 12 km from Rutog or 130 km from

Shiquanhe Shiquanhe (), known in Tibetan as Sênggêkanbab () or Sênggêzangbo, is the main town and administrative seat of Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Shiquanhe is located on the bank of Sênggê Zangbo, the source stream of the I ...

. Tourists can rent a boat on the lake, but landing on islands is not allowed for protecting the breeding ground of the birds. There are several restaurants along the shore.

Flora and fauna

The eastern part of the lake is fresh, with the content of

total dissolved solids Total dissolved solids (TDS) is a measure of the dissolved combined content of all inorganic and organic substances present in a liquid in molecular, ionized, or micro-granular ( colloidal sol) suspended form. TDS concentrations are often report ...

at 0.68 g/L, while the western part of the lake is saline, with the salinity at 11.02 g/L. The

brackish water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

of the lake has very low micro-vegetation. Guides report that there are no fish or other aquatic life on the Indian side of the lake, except for some small

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapoda, decapods, ostracoda, seed shrimp, branchiopoda, branchiopods, argulidae, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopoda, isopods, barnacles, copepods, ...

s. On the other hand, visitors see numerous ducks and gulls over and on the lake surface. There are some species of scrub and perennial herbs that grow in the marshes around the lake. The lake acts as an important breeding ground for a variety of birds including a number of migratory birds. During summer, the

Bar-headed goose The bar-headed goose (''Anser indicus'') is a goose that breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest. It ...

and Brahmini ducks are commonly seen here. The region around the lake supports a number of species of wildlife including the

kiang The kiang (''Equus kiang'') is the largest of the '' Asinus'' subgenus. It is native to the Tibetan Plateau, where it inhabits montane and alpine grasslands. Its current range is restricted to the plains of the Tibetan plateau; Ladakh; and n ...

and the

marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, ...

. The lake hosts large quantities of fish, especially ''

Schizopygopsis stoliczkai The false osman (''Schizopygopsis stoliczkai'') is an Asian cyprinid freshwater fish living in the highlands of Afghanistan, southwestern China, Iran, northern India, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.Kustareva, L.A., and A.M. Naseka (2015). Fis ...

'' and '' Racoma labiata''. Freshwater snails of the genus ''

Radix In a positional numeral system, the radix or base is the number of unique digits, including the digit zero, used to represent numbers. For example, for the decimal/denary system (the most common system in use today) the radix (base number) is ...

'' also live in the lake.Oheimb, Parm Viktor von; Albrecht, Christian; Riedel, Frank; Du, Lina; Yang, Junxing; Aldridge, David C.; Bößneck, Ulrich; Zhang, Hucai; Wilke, Thomas (2011). "Freshwater Biogeography and Limnological Evolution of the Tibetan Plateau - Insights from a Plateau-Wide Distributed Gastropod Taxon (''Radix'' spp.)". '' PLOS One'' 6(10): e26307. , . Formerly, Pangong Tso had an outlet to

Shyok River The Shyok River is a tributary of the Indus River that flows through northern Ladakh and enters Gilgit–Baltistan, spanning some . The Shyok River originates at the Rimo Glacier, one of the tongues of Siachen Glacier. Its alignment is ver ...

, a tributary of the

, but it was closed off due to natural damming. Two streams feed the lake from the Indian side, forming marshes and wetlands at the edges. Strand lines above current lake level reveal a thick layer of mud and laminated sand, suggesting the lake has shrunken recently in geological scale. On the Indian side, no fish have been observed, however in the stream coming from South-eastern side (Cheshul nalla), three fish species (''Schizopygopsis stoliczkae'', '' Tibetan stone loach'' and '' Triplophysa gracilis'') have been reported (Bhat et al., 2011). The low biodiversity has been reported as being due to high salinity and harsh environmental conditions (Bhat et al., 2011). Bird Islet is a popular location for bird-watching for tourists to Ngari.

Climate

Gallery

File:Frozen, Pangong Tso.jpg, Frozen, Pangong Tso File:Pangong Lake Transparent Water & Pebbles.jpg, Transparent water File:Pangong lake - Ladakh.jpg, In July 2018 File:Pangong Tso.JPG, During summer File:Ducks in Pangong Tso.jpg, Birds

Names

Geography

Sino-Indian border dispute

Tourism

Flora and fauna

Climate

Gallery

Maps

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading