Puteri Harbour Marina
Johor, Malaysia
We continue…..
Tibet # 13 Lhasa to Shigatse Yamdrok Lake and Kharola Glacier
“The lake lies in the mountains more than 2,700 feet above the Yarlung-Tsangpo plain and 14,700 feet above sea level, with a surface area of 245 square miles meandering between peaks and up tributary valleys to form an ornate, serpentine letter Y. It is the largest body of fresh water on the northern side of the Himalayas and stores 530 billion cubic feet.” P 40 Tibet Abode of the Gods. The book goes on to talk about the controversy surrounding the building of a hydroelectric power plant and its ecological effect on the lake, the impact of the power plant on the religious belief the Tibetans attach to the lake, and the needed electricity it would generate. The power plant went online in 1996. We only saw a small part of the lake so I have no idea what impact the power plant has caused. We didn’t see any activity on the lake. Tibetans traditionally don’t eat fish and the weather was too cold at the very end of June for recreational use of the lake if it ever gets used for that purpose which Lobsang seemed to imply that it didn’t.
This photo from Wikipedia shows the Y shape of the lake. Lake Puma Yumco is the oval shaped lake.
The lake shore.
Hundreds of stone piles were built near the lake. I built one too.
Barbara Erickson writes about seeing what I’m guessing are similar piles of stones near the Samye Monastery. “Near Samye Monastery, Tibet’s oldest, we passed a miniature city of stone houses built on the side of a sand hill. Pilgrims had made these simple structures, none more than a foot high, out of a few flat rocks so that their souls would have dwelling places when they died.” P 169 Tibet: Abode of the Gods. Of course, you do see these piles lots of places and I built my first one at a beach near the Golden Gate Bridge.
Our driver, Lobsang, and Ronnie stand near our van while above them you can see the other load of tourists stopping to photograph Yamdrok Lake. When we stopped we were instantly approached by other Uncles with their yak. But we had our yak photos so just walked off to the lake shore.
I did take a photo of this woman and her dog.
By this point the weather was getting colder and I was wearing a thermal shirt, wool sweater and my Red Sox Hoodie. Wearing something over your nose warms your breath which I learned after the fact. Many women wear coverings over their noses and mouths. I should have so my nose and lips would have been saved from the cold dry weather.
Our next official photo stop was the Kharola Glacier.
It was massive and amazing and there’s no way you can tell that from these photos.
I had never seen a glacier and was pretty impressed. I raced about taking a few photos and then looking for something hot to drink. Again and again, our stops were just too short to take photos, search the “souvenir tables,” interact with the people who lived at the foot of the glacier and just look around. It was too rushed and it was also our first feeling of being cold and maybe we didn’t bring enough warm clothes!
It was sort of “right there” but far away too. That’s David in the corner of the photo.
I can never think of what to say to people who have so little when we have so much; so I didn’t go visit with these people across the road from the main parking area. I can’t imagine their lives. It was quite beautiful at the foot of the glacier but the conditions are primitive and at times, probably unsafe with the instability of the glacier and rock. Maybe they only live there in the warmer months. I wish I knew.
This is zoomed and cropped so you can see. I was so far away and wonder if they were just looking or actually looking at me.
On our side of the road with the huge parking area there were some stone buildings and tents and local people selling stones and yak skulls and prayer wheels and beads and flags. And I hated to look because I really didn’t want to spend much money and I really don’t enjoy the bargaining process unless I really do want to buy something. The one thing I did buy was some hot, sweat Tibet tea. I had told Lobsang that I wanted some tea and he sent me to a tent at the back of the parking area. The woman motioned me inside and went to hand me a bottle of water. But the two men in the tent were drinking hot tea and I pointed to that. So she motioned me to sit down and I did and smiled at them all and they smiled at me and I could have spent a lovely time there drinking my glass of hot tea. But we had to go. So I took the glass with me and motioned for the woman to follow which she did because I had her glass. I went to the van and found one of our “Chinese train” mugs and poured the tea in the mug and returned the glass. Then it was back into the van and off we went. By the way, the van had no heat but we never realized that until we were at Mount Everest. I guess the 6 of us gave off enough body heat to keep it warm enough at lower elevations.
Where plateaus were fed by mountain streams, there was lots of lush agriculture. But irrigation hasn’t been made available everywhere and many farmers still struggle in the desert lands. I had a year of geology freshman year at UMass but paid little attention. Learning from the pictures in our text just didn’t give me enough visual cues. This image of stream erosion really grabs my imagination and now I would pay attention. We did happen to catch a National Geographic special about the formation of the Himalayas the other night and that explained quite a bit about what we had seen and how I could have found what looks like a sea fossil at the highest point of our road trip.
Our next stop that morning was the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Gyantse and after that it would be time for lunch.
Ru
DoraMac