Wolfgang's photos with the keyword: Manasarovar lake

The ancient Chiu Gompa Monastery, which has been built right onto a steep hill. It looks as if it has been carved right out of the rock.

Chiu Gompa lies near the lake Manasarovar. The ancient Chiu Gompa Monastery, which has been built right onto a steep hill. It looks as if it has been carved right out of the rock.

The most notable of which is the ancient Chiu Gompa Monastery, which has been built right onto a steep hill. It looks as if it has been carved right out of the rock. The Jains and the Bonpas of Tibet equally revere this spot with great enthusiasm.

Chorten and prayer wheels at the foreground to the mysterious Chiu Gompa at the back ground.

The temple overlooks the lake and was where Padmasambhava left this world. The Lotus Born Padmasambhava, was a sage guru from Oḍḍiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century. In those lands he is better known as Guru Rinpoche ("Precious Guru") or Lopon Rinpoche, or, simply, Padum in Tibet, where followers of the Nyingma school regard him as the second Buddha. He said: "My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of the sphere of awareness. My name is the Glorious Lotus Born. I am from the unborn sphere of all phenomena. I consume concepts of duality as my diet. I act in the way of the Buddhas of the three times."

A German traveller group camps at the lake side, observing the thousands seagulls. The gulls catching fish out the lake, local people replace this fish back into the water.

Buddhists associate Manasarovar with Anotatta Lake, where the Buddha was mystically conceived. According to Buddhist legend, the Buddha's mother was transported here by the gods, where she bathed in the sacred waters of Manasarovar until her body was purified. She then saw a white elephant running to her from Mount Kailash, as the Buddha entered her womb. The lake is 88 km in circumference, 90m deep, and 320 sq km in total area.

Deraphuk is the first station for overnight with an amazing view to the Kailash peak.

There have been no recorded attempts to climb Mount Kailash; it is considered off limits to climbers in deference to Buddhist and Hindu beliefs. It is the most significant peak in the world that has not seen any known climbing attempts. Only the well known mountain climber Reinhold Messner once get a permission from Chinese Authorities to clim at the top, but Reinhold refused - in respect to the Millions believers that this Holy peak should never climbed by human beings.

Satellite photo shows both lakes, the Manasarovar lake on the right and the Rakshastal lake on the left side. The Holy Kailash mountain is located just a few kilometers on the north-eastern side. (Photo from Wikepedia site)

Only one monk living permanently in this Monastery site, but he gets many viisits by pilgrims almost every day.

The Seralung (Hailstone Valley) monastery was rebuilt in 1984 by the Drigung Kagyu monastery. It is located on the right side of a small valley near a spring.

Seralung, along with the Selung and Gyandruk monasteries near Mt. Kailash, is a branch of the Drigungtil Monastery east of Lhasa.

Seralung Gompa, another monastery that was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt since. This one was rebuilt in the 1980s, but it looks older than that.

The snow covered Gurla Mandhata (Memo Nanyi) peak (7728 m) in background.

Lake Manasarovar lies at 4556 m above mean sea level, making it the highest fresh-water lake in the world. It is relatively round in shape with a circumference of 88 km. Its depth is 90 m and its surface area is 320 square km. The lake freezes in winter and melts only in the spring. It is connected to nearby Lake Rakshastal by the natural Ganga Chhu channel. Manasarovar is the source of the Sutlej River which is the easternmost large tributary of the Indus. Nearby are the sources of the Brahmaputra River, the Indus River, and the Karnali River (Ghaghara) which is an important tributary of the Ganges River, so this region is the hydrographic nexus of the Himalaya.