Yamdrok Lake: Thousand Years of Lore by the Water's Edge

Attributed to the accomplished master Jangchub Tsöndrü (བྱང་ཆུབ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་; 1817–1856), the following lines come from a traditional folk song of the Yamdrok region. It is said that he spent many years in solitary retreat beside Yamdrok Lake. The song invokes: གནས་ཆེན་ཡར་འབྲོག་གཡུ་མཚོ། གུ་རུ་པད་མའི་གསང་མཛོད། རྒྱལ་འབངས་སྐྱིད་པའི་ཞིང་ཁམས། མཚོ་ཆེན་ལྷ་མོ་མཇལ་ཆོག། — “O sacred land of Yamdrok Lake, The secret treasury of Padmasambhava, A pure land where kings and subjects rejoice together, Where the great lake goddess may be worshipped.”

After traveling far, through mountains and valleys, one suddenly comes upon the sacred lake, its shape recalling a bracelet. Its shallow waters hold fish, while cattle and sheep graze along the shoreline. This turquoise lake has long sheltered the herders, offering them an enduring home.

Both editions of the four sacred lakes count Yamdrok Lake (ཡར་འབྲོག་གཡུ་མཚོ་) among their number, placing it within the "Four Great Lakes" (མཚོ་བཞི་). This lake, together with Yarlha Shampo (ཡར་ལྷ་ཤམ་པོ་)—referred to as "གཙུག་གི་ལྷ་" in ancient Tibetan writings—comprises the foremost "Sacred Mountain and Lake" at the core of Yarlung. The lake's deity, Vajra Veil Mother (རྡོ་རྗེ་བདག་སྒྲིབ་མོ་), appears robed in white and green divine garments, bearing a vajra and jewels.

In Tibetan history, the name "Yamdrok" carries deep importance. Among the twelve kingdoms that existed during the pre-Tibetan Empire period was the "Nine Regions of Nub" (གནུབས་ཡུལ་གླིང་དགུ་/གནུབས་ཀྱི་གླིང་དགུ་), whose territory likely included the Yamdrok area. As a result, Yamdrok is frequently referred to as "Yamdrok Nub Lake and the Nine Regions" (ཡར་འབྲོག་སྣུབས་མཚོ་གླིང་དགུ་/སྣུབས་མཚོ་). Additionally, some texts call her "Great Lake Goddess" (མཚོ་ཆེན་ལྷ་མོ་).

Since the Tibetan Empire, Yamdrok has been associated with the empire's administrative divisions. During that period, historical records suggest the Yamdrok area was likely one of the summer residences of the Tibetan royal family, later called "Yamdrok Grasslands" (ན་ཐང་ཡར་འབྲོག་). It should be noted, however, that this theory requires further investigation—for instance, distinguishing between གནུབས་ and སྣུབས་, and clarifying the kingdoms, clans, and their origins that these names refer to.

During the Yuan Dynasty-Sakya era, the "Yamdrok Dralung Ten Thousand Households" ranked among the thirteen myriarchies (ཁྲི་སྐོར་བཅུ་གསུམ་) of Ü-Tsang. Its seat was located at Nakartse, and the individual in command bore the title "Nakartse Pa" (སྣ་དཀར་རྩེ་པ་/སྡེ་པ་སྣ་དཀར་རྩེ་). Of the three distinct accounts connected to Yamdrok Lake, the first is "Yamdrok Lake and Padmasambhava," which holds that Padmasambhava, together with the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, conferred unique blessings upon the Yamdrok area.

This corresponds to the Buddhist concept of "Sacred Mountains and Lakes." More than a dozen sacred sites tied to this narrative can be found around Yamdrok Lake. Often called the "Great Water Treasure of Yamdrok" (ཡར་འབྲོག་གི་ཆུ་གཏེར་ཆེན་པོ་), the lake is regarded as a hidden treasure land and a pure water realm. As for the "Pilgrimage Route of the Two Lakes," the "Two Lakes" denote Yamdrok Lake and Lake Puma Yumco (ཕུ་མ་གཡུ་མཚོ་).

The "Two Lakes Pilgrimage" route is highlighted in pilgrimage guidebooks as one that traces the sacred marks left by numerous great masters and their enlightened deeds. Pilgrims make their way from the two lakes to the holy places of Lhoka, or continue from the lakes into central Ü-Tsang, including destinations such as Lhasa and Shigatse. Yamdrok Lake, according to the account "Coexistence of Various Traditions Around the Lake," functions as a common meditation ground shared by several schools. Around its shores, monasteries belonging to most of Tibet's major religious traditions can be found.

Samding Monastery and Dralung Taring Monastery (བསམ་སྡིངས་དགོན་དང་སྟག་ལུང་ཐར་གླིང་ཆོས་སྡེ་) are especially noteworthy. The latter has no connection to the Drukpa Kagyu tradition. As for the former, it belongs to the Bodong tradition (བོ་དོང་།), which originated in the 11th century. Although some scholars erroneously attribute Samding to the Shangpa Kagyu, that misidentification stems from the first Dorje Phagmo (1422–1456) having trained under both Bodong Panchen and Thangtong Gyalpo.

Throughout the Pan-Himalayan region, the "Yang Lake Culture Circle" has always carried a distinctive allure. Its dances and songs, funeral and wedding customs, legends, and handicrafts are all unique to this place. The people here are born by the lake, worship around it, mourn without grief, and uphold ancient traditions—an unchanging nature of their own. This circle was founded by Taktsang Lotsawa (སྟག་ཚང་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་; 1405–1477), a Sakya scholar.

This piece, translated from Sorang Wangqing's blog, is much like the Yang Lake region saying: "Pure goddess lake, all beings live in peace.