About Kailash Mansarovar Lake

Lake Manasarovar lies at 4,556 m (14947.5 ft) above mean sea level. It is one of the highest fresh-water lakes in the world [2]. Lake Mapam Yumco is relatively round in shape with a circumference of 88 kilometres (55 mi). Its depth is 90 m (300 ft) and its surface area is 320 square kilometres (120 sq mi). The lake freezes in winter and melts only in the spring. It is connected to nearby Lake Rakshastal by the natural Ganga Chhu channel. Mapam Yumco 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 mainstem 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.

The Himalayas, the crown of the Indian peninsula has remained the cultural locus for its teeming millions. It is in the Himalayas, as the Skanda Purana records, where Lord Shiva lives, and there the mighty river Ganges fell from the foot of Lord Vishnu like “the slender thread of a lotus flower”. 

The myths descend down from Mount Kailash to the shores of Lake Mansarovar. It is said that Maharaja Mandhata has discovered the Lake. The legend goes: Mandhata had done penance on the shores of Mansarovar at the foot of the magnificent mountains named after him. According to the legend, there was a big mansion down below on its bottom.

It is said to be the abode of the king of Nags – the serpent gods – and in the middle of the arc like surface of the lake once upon there stood a huge tree. Its fruits fell into the lake with the sound ‘Jam’; thus, the surrounding region came to be known as “Jambu-ling” or “Jambu-Dvipa” in the Hindu Puranas. 

In some Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist works, Mansarovar is described as Anotatta or Anavatapta – the lake without heat and trouble. Buddhists believe that in its centre there is a tree, which bears fruits of celestial medicinal properties that may cure all known physical as well as mental ailments.
 
The human ideal of mount Meru rising from the descent of the seventh hell and rising to perforate through the loftiest of the heavens – the great mountain at the centre of the universe itself – comes to rest at Kailash. The Skanda Purana therefore acknowledges, “There are no mountains like the Himalayas, for in them are Kailash and Mansarovar”. 

One myths goes that at the core of the Jambu, the landmass surrounding Lake Mansarovar, stood the glorious mountain of Meru with four colours and faces: white like a Brahmin, the priest, on its eastern surface; yellow like a Vaisya, the merchant, on the south; red like a Kshatriya, the warrior, on the north; black on its western side like a Shudra, the menial.