Place · high-altitude lake · India
Tso Moriri
Also known as Tsomoriri, Lake Moriri, Mountain Lake
A 19-kilometre freshwater lake on the Changthang plateau at 4,522 metres, within the Changthang Cold Desert Sanctuary. Korzok Monastery on its western shore is the only permanent settlement — a seventeenth-century Drukpa Kagyu gompa whose summer Korzok Gustor festival draws Changpa pastoralists from across the plateau. The lake is a Ramsar wetland and a breeding ground for the bar-headed goose, the brahminy duck and the rare black-necked crane. Access requires an Inner Line Permit; the lake is closed in winter for seven months.
- Function
- Landscape & environmental change
- Tradition
- Standard reference and local gazetteers; ASI, state archaeology and INTACH records where applicable.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 32.900, 78.300
Connections (1)
- Site withinChangthang and the Changpa
Tso Moriri sits on the Changthang plateau, within the Changthang Cold Desert Sanctuary that covers much of the Rupshu region. Korzok Monastery on the lake's western shore is the only permanent settlement on the lake, and the surrounding grasslands are Changpa winter pasture. The lake, the Changthang plateau and the Changpa economy are one ecological-cultural unit — the lake is one of several high-altitude water bodies the Changpa summer migration brings herds past.