Lake Qīnghǎi

Qinghai Lake, known to Mongols as Koko Nor and to Tibetans as Tso Ngönpo, fills a high basin on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Rivers and streams enter its alkaline salt waters, but no river flows out. Mountains and grasslands surround the lake, while an island called the Heart of the Lake housed a Buddhist temple and hermitages. Monks and pilgrims could reach the island in winter when the lake froze.

In the 1620s Güshi Khan and other Khoshut Mongols moved into the Qinghai region. The lake remained a sacred place for Tibetan Buddhists, who travelled around its shores on pilgrimage. Its blue waters gave the surrounding country a name used in several languages and made it a landmark in the high pasturelands of Amdo.