Most Attraction of the trek: Unsurpassed Lake and
mountain scenery, wildlife such as musk deer and black bear. Relax by
Nepal’s largest lake.
Dolpo is the best known of Nepal's forbidden northern border regions.
The 1989 announcement that the government was opening
the region to group treks caused a flurry of excitement. Phoksumdo Lake
(3,627 meters) is the highlight of the whole trek, a basin of unearthly
turquoise blue ringed by rocky crags and forest, framed by snow-capped
peaks. Legend says a demons fled here during Gum Rinpoche's conversion
of Tibet's resident spirits, offering local people a gigantic turquoise
to keep her passage a secret. Guru Rinpoche transformed the turquoise
into a lump of dung, and the disgruntled people revealed the demons
hiding place. In revenge she culled down a flood upon their village,
submerging it beneath the lake. The legend is a concise mythic summary
of the ancient struggle between Bönpo and Buddhists; the latter won,
but the former remain, even here at Phoksumdo.
At the lake's eastern end is the village of Ringmo, also called Tso.
The town's entrance chorten has nine complex Buddhist and Bönpo
mandalas painted on its wooden ceiling. The people are Bhotia and only
very distantly related to Tibetans. They are gradually becoming
hinduized, adding Chhetri surnames to their Tibetan names.
The Bönpo monastery, Tso Gompa, is two km from the village, set above
the lake on forested cliffs with views across to Kanjiroba. Below the
village, a gigantic waterfall cascades over a series of rock steps,
draining into the Suli Gad fur below. A visit to the Bönpo Gompa at
Pungmo, two hours up aside valley to the west, is a worthwhile
expedition.
this is test
