Records & People
Phoksundo's turquoise water and no-fishing custom are real, but Nepal's own hydrology surveys put the actual depth record on a different lake…
By Laxman Rawal · Sep 4, 2026
Open almost any guidebook to Nepal's far west and you'll read the same line: Phoksundo, the impossibly turquoise lake inside Shey Phoksundo National Park, is Nepal's deepest lake. It gets repeated on trekking sites, in blog posts, in park brochures. It isn't…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
The mix-up is easy to understand once you've seen both lakes. Phoksundo is the one everyone photographs: a sheet of glass-clear turquoise pinned between cliffs at 3,611m, inside Nepal's largest and only trans-Himalayan national park. The colour comes from…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
None of this makes Phoksundo less remarkable. Local Buddhist and Bon communities treat it as sacred ground, and guides who work the region consistently report the same detail: no one fishes the lake, and hasn't for generations — a custom held by belief, not…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
What this means for you Both lakes sit in Nepal's remote far west, days from a road, and that is the actual draw. Phoksundo is reached on the Lower Dolpo trek or the longer, restricted-area Upper Dolpo trek , walking in through Shey Phoksundo National Park…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
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