Siling Tso

About Siling Tso

Lying on the border between Peru and Bolivia of South America, Lake Titicaca sits at 3,812 meters above sea level. For a long time, people in the West regarded this lake as the world’s highest lake. Whereas in Tibet, nearly 1,000 lakes are higher than 4,000 meters above sea level and 17 lakes are 5,000 meters high. 　　　

According to Chinese scientists, the Siling Tso of Tibet should be the highest lake in the world. Located in the Zhongba County, the 5,386-meter high fresh-water lake flows into the Yarlung Tsangpo River. The lake lies on a tundra of very rigid natural condition. 　　　

Siling Tso is also the 2nd largest lake (the largest one is Namtso Lake) in Tibet, lying at the south of the Changtang Plateau. In accordance with legend, Siling is an arch devil who used to live in Duilongdeqing County, west of Lhasa. He greedily devoured thousands of lives everyday including both human beings and animals. One day, Padamasambhava found Siling and asked him to stay in the lake forever and confess. From then on, people called the lake “Siling Tso”, which means the “Siling Devil Lake”.