Gurudongmar Lake

Geography

The high-elevation lake is located in the district of North Sikkim, 190 km from Gangtok, and about 5 km south of the Chinese border. The lake can be reached by the 100 km National Highway 310C (NH310C) from Chungthang via Lachen and Thangu Valley. The road from Thangu to Gurudongmar passes through rugged terrain with moraines and high alpine pastures covered with many rhododendron trees.

Features

The lake is fed by the Gurudongmar glacier and is a moraine-dammed lake. It is located to north of the Khangchengyao range, in a high plateau area connected with the Tibetan Plateau. It provides one of the source streams, which joins the Tso Lhamo Lake and then form the source of the Teesta River. The lake remains completely frozen in the winter months from November to mid May.

The lake has an area of 118 ha and its peripheral length is 5.34 km. The area surrounding the lake, also known as Gurudongmar, is inhabited by yaks, blue sheep, and other wildlife of high elevation.

In folklore

In Buddhism

Guru Padmasambhava, on his way back from Tibet, visited the holy Dorje Nyima lake, which remained frozen for most of the year. The locals called upon him to help them. After touching a small section of the lake, it never froze again, solving the water problem for the people. The lake became holy and an important place for Buddhist pilgrimage, ensuring the lake's continued existence.

Dispute

A dispute arose when on the bank of the lake an Indian Army regiment of Sikhs—located at the border with China—considering the lake as the place visited by Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, constructed a Gurudwara in 1997–1998. This created anger among the Sikkimese people of the area, who considered the Gurudwara an illegal construction, because their ancient sacred lake had been sanctified by the visit of their Guru Padmasambhava. The government of Sikkim then constituted a high level committee to examine the issue and submit a report. Documents furnished to the committee by the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok, agreed with the claim of the local people that it was without a doubt a Buddhist religious place. This was accepted by the committee. The building constructed by the Sikh regiment was then handed over by the Army to the Lachen Monastery on 6 July 2001, in the presence of the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Chungthang, North Sikkim. The monastery placed a lama as a watchman at the lake, entrusted with the task of maintaining it.

Notes

References

References

1. [https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=gurudongmar#map=15/28.0265/88.7143&layers=C Gurudongmar], OpenStreetMap, retrieved 18 November 2021.
2. (2021). "Water Security and Sustainability: Proceedings of Down To Earth 2019". Springer Nature.
3. (September 2012). "National Wetland Atlas: High Altitude Lakes Of India". Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Government of India.
4. Husain. (2012). "Understanding Geographical Map Entries". Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
5. Rongmei, Precious. "Did you know of this legend about Sikkim's Gurudongmar Lake?". The Times of India.
6. (12 January 2023). "সিকিমের গুরুদোংমার হ্রদের কিংবদন্তি সম্পর্কে জানেন কি?".
7. Singh, M.. (2001). "Punjab 2000: Political and Socio-economic Developments". Anamika Publishers & Distributors.