Tibet Lakes Map: Yamdrok, Namtso, Manasarovar and Other Major Lakes

Tibet’s major lakes do not cluster around one travel area — they ring the plateau. Yamdrok sits close to Lhasa on the road south, Namtso lies north across the Nyenchen Tanglha range, Siling Co is deep in the Changtang grasslands, Basum Tso and Ranwu belong to the forested east, and Manasarovar and Rakshas Tal are a two-day drive away in the far west beside Mount Kailash. This page maps all seven, compares altitudes and road distances from Lhasa, and shows which lakes realistically combine on the same trip — because on this plateau, they do not all fit into one short itinerary. The full set of pages lives in our Tibet map collection.

Tibet Lakes Map: Where the Major Lakes Sit

Read the map by regions rather than by names. To the south, Yamdrok lies along the Lhasa–Gyantse–Shigatse highway, the corridor that continues to Everest Base Camp. To the north, Namtso sits in Damxung County, and beyond it the lakes of the Changtang spread across the high grasslands of Nagqu, with Siling Co as the largest. In the east, Basum Tso and Ranwu follow the Nyingchi and G318 corridors, where the plateau breaks into forest. In the far west, Manasarovar and Rakshas Tal sit at the foot of Mount Kailash in Ngari, closer to the Nepal and India borders than to Lhasa.

One naming note before the lake-by-lake detail: tso or co simply means “lake” in Tibetan, which is why the names repeat it — Namtso, Siling Co, Rakshas Tal. The seven lakes on this page are an editorial grouping based on size, scenery and route relevance. Tibetan tradition most often honors three of them as sacred — Yamdrok, Namtso and Manasarovar — and the distinction matters, so we keep the two labels separate throughout.

If you want the broader sightseeing picture — monasteries, palaces and the seventeen headline attractions — our Tibet tourist map covers that. This page stays on the lakes: where they are, how far they sit from Lhasa, and how they chain together.

Tibet’s Major Lakes at a Glance

The table below is the planning core of this page. Distances are approximate one-way road distances from Lhasa, and the difficulty column describes time and remoteness rather than danger — every one of these lakes sits well above 3,000 m.

Road distances checked September 2026 against the routes used in our current itineraries; they shift a little with the exact lakeshore stops.

The Seven Major Lakes on the Map

Each lake below gets its map position and its route role — not a full sightseeing guide. The detailed itineraries belong to our route and product pages; here the question is always “where does this lake sit, and how do you combine it?”

Yamdrok Lake Map: The Lake on the Lhasa–Everest Road

Yamdrok curls through the mountains about 110 km southwest of Lhasa, and the road to Gyantse passes the lake after climbing to the Gampa La viewpoint at 5,030 m — the classic photo stop where much of the water appears below you. That road position is the whole point: Yamdrok is not a detour but a stage on the main southern route. On a Lhasa–Gyantse–Shigatse–Everest itinerary the lake costs almost no extra time, which is why it appears on nearly every first-trip plan. The Karola Glacier follows a few hours later on the same road, and the full sequence is mapped in our Lhasa to Everest Base Camp map.

Namtso Map: The Northern Lake Below Nyenchen Tanglha

Namtso sits about 240 km north of Lhasa at 4,718 m, and the road climbs over Nagen La, about 5,190 m, before dropping to the Tashi Peninsula shore. It works as a long day trip, while an overnight stay near the peninsula allows visitors to see the lake in evening and morning light — with the caveat that sleeping at 4,700 m is a real altitude step, as our Tibet altitude map explains. The lake pairs naturally with an Everest itinerary as the northern counterweight: go south for the mountain, north for the lake. In winter the pass road can be affected by snow and road conditions, so check the current situation before planning a Namtso trip.

Siling Co Map: Tibet’s Largest Lake in the Changtang

Siling Co (also known as Serling Tso) is the largest lake in Tibet, a saline expanse in the Changtang grasslands roughly 470–560 km from Lhasa, depending on the route and lakeshore access. It lies well beyond Namtso. It has no resort infrastructure and no place in a short itinerary — it belongs to northern overland routes that link the grasslands with the west, the kind of driving described in our Tibet road map. Treat it as a destination for a second or third Tibet trip rather than a first. Its role on this map is to show that the northern lake region continues far past Namtso.

Lake Manasarovar Map: The Pilgrimage Lake of Western Tibet

Manasarovar lies in Ngari, roughly 1,200 km from Lhasa, at about 4,590 m — a round, freshwater lake a few kilometers from Mount Kailash and the pilgrimage town of Darchen. It is an important pilgrimage lake for Hindu and Buddhist traditions and is closely associated with Mount Kailash. What it is not is an add-on: reaching it means committing to a western Tibet itinerary of roughly two weeks, and the route needs extra permits on top of the Tibet Travel Permit. The full geography is covered in our Mount Kailash map.

Rakshas Tal Map: The Lake Beside Manasarovar

Rakshas Tal sits immediately west of Manasarovar, the two separated by a narrow ridge of hills, and the G219 passes through the area on the approach to Darchen. At about 4,575 m it is a saltwater lake beside Manasarovar, while Manasarovar is freshwater. You do not plan separately for it — nearly every Kailash route passes its shoreline within an hour of seeing Manasarovar. On this map it counts as one of the seven because it is a distinct lake with its own shoreline driving, not a bay of its neighbor.

Basum Tso Map: The Forest Lake of Nyingchi

Basum Tso sits at about 3,480 m in Gongbo’gyamda County east of Lhasa, a forest-ringed lake — roughly 1,200 m lower than Namtso and a different world of landscape. A small island monastery rises from the water, and the lake anchors the Nyingchi side of eastern itineraries about 350 km from Lhasa. It is the lowest-altitude lake on this list, which makes it a very different stop from the high northern and western lakes, and it often appears at the end of a G318 journey as the green finale before Lhasa. The contrast with the open plateau lakes is the whole reason eastern Tibet deserves its own route.

Ranwu Lake Map: The G318 Lake by the Glaciers

Ranwu sits at about 3,850 m in Baxoi County, Chamdo, roughly 750 km from Lhasa along the G318 — a long, narrow lake fed by glaciers and famous for its reflections of snow peaks. Laigu Glacier sits nearby and is often added to the same eastern itinerary; it is a glacier, not a lake. Ranwu is never a day trip: it stands a long drive east of Nyingchi, and it earns its place on overland journeys between Chengdu and Lhasa. Among the seven, it is the lake most tied to the drive itself rather than to a destination around it.

Tibet Lakes by Route: Which Lakes Can You Combine?

This is the section that turns the map into an itinerary. The combinations below follow the routes we actually operate, so what you read here matches what a booking conversation would confirm. Each combination names the lakes, the shape of the drive and the days it needs.

The Southern Route: Yamdrok on the Way to Everest

The classic first itinerary runs Lhasa → Yamdrok → Gyantse → Shigatse → Everest Base Camp and back, and Yamdrok is simply day four of the standard eight-day version. Travelers with fewer days can do the lake as a Lhasa day trip and skip the west; travelers with a week see the lake, the glacier, the towns and the mountain in one line. If the priority is Everest with a lake attached, this is the combination, and our Lhasa Everest Base Camp tour follows exactly this shape. One lake, one direction, no backtracking.

The Northern Route: Namtso as a Day Trip or an Extension

Namtso stands on its own axis: out of Lhasa and back, without any need to touch the southern route. As a day trip it fits almost any itinerary of six days or more; with an overnight it becomes a quiet two-day loop. It also stitches into the Everest line — the standard eight-day pattern runs south to Base Camp first, then north to Namtso before returning to Lhasa, which is how our Lhasa Everest Namtso tour is built. For a few itineraries the northern arc extends beyond Namtso toward Siling Co, but only on dedicated northern routes with the days to spare.

The Eastern Route: Basum Tso and Ranwu on the G318

The eastern lakes belong to a completely different drive: the G318 from Chengdu or the Nyingchi corridor out of Lhasa. The overland shape runs Chengdu → Ranwu → Bomi → Nyingchi → Basum Tso → Lhasa, finishing with Yamdrok if the itinerary continues south — the pattern our Sichuan to Tibet overland G318 tour follows. Ranwu and Basum Tso rarely combine with the western lakes, because the distances push any such plan past two weeks. Think of the east as its own lake region with its own trip.

The Western Route: Manasarovar, Rakshas Tal and Mount Kailash

The western combination is the southern route extended: Lhasa → Yamdrok → Shigatse → Everest → Saga → Manasarovar → Kailash, with Rakshas Tal beside Manasarovar and Peiku Tso appearing as an additional lake along some western routes. This is a thirteen-to-fifteen-day commitment, and the route combines major sightseeing stops with important pilgrimage sites around Mount Kailash and Manasarovar. Our Lhasa EBC Kailash Mansarovar tour runs this line. If you only remember one rule from this page, make it this one: Manasarovar is never a day trip from anywhere.

The Full Western Loop: Adding Guge and the Northern Lakes

The deepest lake itinerary returns by a different door. After Kailash it continues west to the Guge Kingdom, then swings north and east through the Changtang past Siling Co, finishing over Namtso back to Lhasa — a fifteen-day circuit that touches Yamdrok, Manasarovar, Rakshas Tal, Siling Co and Namtso, with Peiku Tso as an additional western stop. Our Lhasa EBC Kailash Guge Namtso tour is built on exactly this arc. It is one of the few practical ways to see four or more of the seven lakes in a single trip.

Choosing a Lake Route by Trip Length and Season

Match the days you have to the lakes that fit, and the map stops being overwhelming:

Season matters as much as distance. Southern and eastern Tibet can be traveled in different seasons, but road and weather conditions still need checking before departure. Namtso and other high northern routes can be affected by snow and pass conditions in the colder months. Western Tibet is particularly seasonal: access around Mount Kailash and Manasarovar can change with weather, road and scenic-area operating conditions. Check the latest route status before booking, and use the altitude rules on our Tibet altitude map and the route days on the Tibet travel route map to pressure-test any combination.