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43-468: Pangong Tso or Pangong Lake ( Tibetan : སྤང་གོང་མཚོ ; Chinese : 班公错 ; pinyin : Bān gōng cuò ; Hindi : पैंगोंग झील , romanized :  Paiṅgoṅg jhīl ) is an endorheic lake spanning eastern Ladakh and West Tibet situated at an elevation of 4,225 m (13,862 ft). It is 134 km (83 mi) long and divided into five sublakes, called Pangong Tso , Tso Nyak , Rum Tso (twin lakes) and Nyak Tso . Approximately 50% of

86-458: A space. Spaces are not used to divide words. The Tibetan alphabet has thirty basic letters, sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants. As in other Indic scripts , each consonant letter assumes an inherent vowel ; in the Tibetan script it is /a/. The letter ཨ is also the base for dependent vowel marks. Although some Tibetan dialects are tonal , the language had no tone at the time of

129-496: A written tradition. Amdo Tibetan was one of a few examples where Buddhist practitioners initiated a spelling reform. A spelling reform of the Ladakhi language was controversial in part because it was first initiated by Christian missionaries. In the Tibetan script, the syllables are written from left to right. Syllables are separated by a tsek (་); since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as

172-454: Is Tibetan that is interpreted to mean various different but similar meanings -- "long, narrow, enchanted lake" by Chinese media sources, "female narrow very long lake" by early European explorers, and "long-necked swan lake" by other modern sources. Pangong Tso is surrounded by three mountain ranges: Changchenmo Range and Pangong Range sub-ranges of Karakoram Range , and Kailash Range (Gangdise Shan range). Changchenmo Range runs along

215-459: Is a popular location for bird-watching for tourists in Ngari . Tibetan script The Tibetan script has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali , Nepali and Old Turkic . The printed form is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê script . This writing system is used across

258-410: Is above most other consonants, thus རྐ rka. However, an exception to this is the cluster རྙ /ɲa/. Similarly, the consonants ར /ra/, and ཡ /ja/ change form when they are beneath other consonants, thus ཀྲ /ʈ ~ ʈʂa/; ཀྱ /ca/. Besides being written as subscripts and superscripts, some consonants can also be placed in prescript, postscript, or post-postscript positions. For instance,

301-666: Is designed as a simple means for inputting Dzongkha text on computers. This keyboard layout was standardized by the Dzongkha Development Commission (DDC) and the Department of Information Technology (DIT) of the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2000. It was updated in 2009 to accommodate additional characters added to the Unicode & ISO 10646 standards since the initial version. Since

344-504: Is followed by two small lakes called Rum Tso . The last lake near Rutog is called Nyak Tso again. The whole lake group was and is still often referred to as Tsomo Nganglha Ringpo ( Tibetan : མཚོ་མོ་ངང་ལྷ་རིང་པོ ) in Tibetan. There are different interpretations of the meanings of both Pangong Tso and Tsomo Nganglha Ringpo . The Ladakh government website says "Pangong Tso" is Tibetan, meaning "high grassland lake", however travel books say Pangong means "hollow". Tsomo Nganglha Ringpo

387-531: Is required to visit the lake, as it lies on the Sino-Indian Line of Actual Control . For security reasons, India does not permit boating. Groups are permitted, accompanied by an accredited guide. The past few years have seen a remarkable increase in Indian tourists flocking to Pangong Lake. However, this surge has presented environmental challenges due to inadequate infrastructure to accommodate and manage

430-528: Is simply read as it usually is and has no effect on the pronunciation of the consonant to which it is subjoined, for example ཀ་ཝ་ཟུར་ཀྭ (IPA: /ka.wa.suː.ka/). The vowels used in the alphabet are ཨ /a/, ཨི /i/, ཨུ /u/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/. While the vowel /a/ is included in each consonant, the other vowels are indicated by marks; thus ཀ /ka/, ཀི /ki/, ཀུ /ku/, ཀེ /ke/, ཀོ /ko/. The vowels ཨི /i/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/ are placed above consonants as diacritics, while

473-560: Is solely for the consonants ད /tʰa/ and ས /sa/. The head ( མགོ in Tibetan, Wylie: mgo ) letter, or superscript, position above a radical is reserved for the consonants ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ས /sa/. The subscript position under a radical can only be occupied by the consonants ཡ /ja/, ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ཝ /wa/. In this position they are described as བཏགས (Wylie: btags , IPA: /taʔ/), in Tibetan meaning "hung on/affixed/appended", for example བ་ཡ་བཏགས་བྱ (IPA: /pʰa.ja.taʔ.t͡ʃʰa/), except for ཝ , which

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516-563: The Himalayas and Tibet . The script is closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity, spanning across areas in India , Nepal , Bhutan and Tibet. The Tibetan script is of Brahmic origin from the Gupta script and is ancestral to scripts such as Lepcha , Marchen and the multilingual ʼPhags-pa script , and is also closely related to Meitei . According to Tibetan historiography,

559-515: The Indus River basin by a small elevated ridge, but is believed to have been part of the latter in prehistoric times. Historically, the lake is viewed as being made up five sublakes, which are connected through narrow water channels. The name Pangong Tso only applied to the westernmost lake that is mostly in Ladakh. The main lake on the Tibetan side is called Tso Nyak (the "middle lake"). It

602-898: The Latin script . Multiple Romanization and transliteration systems have been created in recent years, but do not fully represent the true phonetic sound. While the Wylie transliteration system is widely used to Romanize Standard Tibetan , others include the Library of Congress system and the IPA-based transliteration (Jacques 2012). Below is a table with Tibetan letters and different Romanization and transliteration system for each letter, listed below systems are: Wylie transliteration (W), Tibetan pinyin (TP), Dzongkha phonetic (DP), ALA-LC Romanization (A) and THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription (THL). The first version of Microsoft Windows to support

645-518: The 9th-century spoken Tibetan, and current pronunciation. This divergence is the basis of an argument in favour of spelling reform , to write Tibetan as it is pronounced ; for example, writing Kagyu instead of Bka'-rgyud . The nomadic Amdo Tibetan and the western dialects of the Ladakhi language , as well as the Balti language , come very close to the Old Tibetan spellings. Despite that,

688-624: The Chinese and Indian militaries have vessels stationed on the lake. Since 2022, China built a bridge across the lake near the Khurnak Fort. The construction of the 400-meter bridge was completed in July 2024. Following roads provide the access within the Indian held area: Following roads provide the access within the China held area: On the Indian side, an Inner Line Permit

731-457: The Indian side of the lake, except for some small crustaceans . On the other hand, visitors see numerous ducks and gulls over and on the lake surface. There are some species of scrub and perennial herbs that grow in the marshes around the lake. The lake acts as an important breeding ground for a variety of birds including a number of migratory birds. During summer, the bar-headed geese and Brahmini ducks are commonly seen here. The region around

774-690: The Khurnak Fort by 1958. On 20 October 1962, Pangong Tso saw military action during the Sino-Indian War , successful for the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). The area remains a sensitive border point along the LAC. Incursions from the Chinese side are common. In August 2017, Indian and Chinese forces near Pangong Tso engaged in a melee involving kicking, punching, rock throwing, and use of makeshift weapons such as sticks and rods. On 11 September 2019, PLA troops confronted Indian troops on

817-482: The King which were afterward translated. In the first half of the 7th century, the Tibetan script was used for the codification of these sacred Buddhist texts, for written civil laws, and for a Tibetan Constitution. A contemporary academic suggests that the script was instead developed in the second half of the 11th century. New research and writings also suggest that there were one or more Tibetan scripts in use prior to

860-739: The LAC runs west till the Finger-4. The overlapping LAC claim area between Finger-4 and Finger-8 is considered a buffer zone by India and China. Indian Military has a permanent base near the Finger-3, named as the Dhan Singh Thapa Post , and the Chinese Military has a permanent base to the east of Finger-8. Pangong Range has several important features, from northwest to southeast: Harong peak, Merag peak , Kangju Kangri peak, and Kongta La pass. Kailash Range on

903-583: The Pangong Tso, from centre of Pangong Tso at Lukung to the west to Phursook Bay and Mount Kailash . Changchenmo Range has several glaciated spurs which slope down and jut into the northern bank of Pangong Tso, and these spurs are called as the fingers . From west to east, these are named as the Finger-1 to Finger-8 . The Indian claim of LAC runs east till the Finger-8, and the Chinese claim of

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946-732: The Tibetan keyboard layout is MS Windows Vista . The layout has been available in Linux since September 2007. In Ubuntu 12.04, one can install Tibetan language support through Dash / Language Support / Install/Remove Languages, the input method can be turned on from Dash / Keyboard Layout, adding Tibetan keyboard layout. The layout applies the similar layout as in Microsoft Windows. Mac OS -X introduced Tibetan Unicode support with OS-X version 10.5 and later, now with three different keyboard layouts available: Tibetan-Wylie, Tibetan QWERTY and Tibetan-Otani. The Dzongkha keyboard layout scheme

989-490: The Tibetan script was developed during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo by his minister Thonmi Sambhota , who was sent to India with 16 other students to study Buddhism along with Sanskrit and written languages. They developed the Tibetan script from the Gupta script while at the Pabonka Hermitage . This occurred c.  620 , towards the beginning of the king's reign. There were 21 Sutra texts held by

1032-469: The alignment as the China-Claimed-LAC via Spanggur Gap, Rezang La, etc. India-Claimed-border runs further northeast of India-Claimed-LAC via Khurnak Fort on north bank of Pangong Tso to Mumkun peak on south bank, to Laban peak , Matung Nyungtsa , Spanggur Tso, Dage peak, Rechihlong and Bapi peak . Pangong Tso is disputed territory. The Line of Actual Control (LAC) passes through

1075-509: The arrangement of keys essentially follows the usual order of the Dzongkha and Tibetan alphabet, the layout can be quickly learned by anyone familiar with this alphabet. Subjoined (combining) consonants are entered using the Shift key. The Dzongkha (dz) keyboard layout is included in Microsoft Windows, Android, and most distributions of Linux as part of XFree86 . Tibetan was originally one of

1118-407: The basic Tibetan alphabet to represent different sounds. In addition to the use of supplementary graphemes, the rules for constructing consonant clusters are amended, allowing any character to occupy the superscript or subscript position, negating the need for the prescript and postscript positions. Romanization and transliteration of the Tibetan script is the representation of the Tibetan script in

1161-418: The consonants ག /kʰa/, ད /tʰa/, བ /pʰa/, མ /ma/ and འ /a/ can be used in the prescript position to the left of other radicals, while the position after a radical (the postscript position), can be held by the ten consonants ག /kʰa/, ན /na/, བ /pʰa/, ད /tʰa/, མ /ma/, འ /a/, ར /ra/, ང /ŋa/, ས /sa/, and ལ /la/. The third position, the post-postscript position

1204-619: The eastern and northern bank of the Pangong Tso, and contains spurs Finger-1 to Finger-8. Pangong Range , along the southern bank of the Pangong Tso, runs from Tangtse in west to Chushul near the centre of southern bank of the Pangong Tso. According to the Britannica , the Changchenmo Range and Pangong Range are sometimes considered easternmost part of the Karakoram Range . Kailash Range , runs along southern bank of

1247-539: The grammar of these dialectical varieties has considerably changed. To write the modern varieties according to the orthography and grammar of Classical Tibetan would be similar to writing Italian according to Latin orthography, or to writing Hindi according to Sanskrit orthogrophy. However, modern Buddhist practitioners in the Indian subcontinent state that the classical orthography should not be altered even when used for lay purposes. This became an obstacle for many modern Tibetic languages wishing to modernize or to introduce

1290-491: The growing number of visitors. In 2023, on the Indian side the tourists are allowed to visit only the eastern and southern bank, access to the north bank is not yet open for the tourists. The eastern part of the lake is fresh, with the content of total dissolved solids at 0.68 g/L, while the western part of the lake is saline, with the salinity at 11.02 g/L. The brackish water of the lake has very low micro-vegetation. Guides report that there are no fish or other aquatic life on

1333-452: The introduction of the script by Songtsen Gampo and Thonmi Sambhota . The incomplete Dunhuang manuscripts are their key evidence for their hypothesis, while the few discovered and recorded Old Tibetan Annals manuscripts date from 650 and therefore post-date the c. 620 date of development of the original Tibetan script. Three orthographic standardisations were developed. The most important, an official orthography aimed to facilitate

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1376-653: The lake from the Indian side, forming marshes and wetlands at the edges. Strand lines above current lake level reveal a 5 m (16 ft) thick layer of mud and laminated sand, suggesting the lake has shrunken recently on the geological scale. On the Indian side, no fish have been observed, however in the stream coming from the south-eastern side (Cheshul nalla), three fish species ( Schizopygopsis stoliczkae , Tibetan stone loach and Triplophysa gracilis ) have been reported (Bhat et al., 2011). The low biodiversity has been reported as being due to high salinity and harsh environmental conditions (Bhat et al., 2011). Bird Islet

1419-471: The lake supports a number of species of wildlife including the kiang and the marmot . The lake hosts large quantities of fish, especially Schizopygopsis stoliczkai and Racoma labiata . Freshwater snails of the genus Radix also live in the lake. Formerly, Pangong Tso had an outlet to the Shyok River , a tributary of the Indus River , but it was closed off by natural damming. Two streams feed

1462-512: The lake. A section of the lake approximately 20 km east from the LAC is controlled by China but claimed by India. To the south is the smaller Spanggur Tso lake. The eastern end of the lake is in Tibet . After the mid-19th century, Pangong Tso was at the southern end of Johnson Line , an early attempt at demarcation between India and China in the Aksai Chin region. Khurnak Fort lies on

1505-549: The length of the overall lake lies within Tibet administered by China, 40% in Indian-administered Ladakh, and the remaining 10% is disputed and is a de facto buffer zone between India and China. The lake is 5 km (3.1 mi) wide at its broadest point. All together it covers almost 700 km. During winter the lake freezes completely, despite being saline water . It has a land-locked basin separated from

1548-544: The northern bank of the lake, about halfway up Pangong Tso. The dispute over the fort was discussed in a 1924 conference, which remained inconclusive. After the conference, the British government decided that Tibetans had a better case and not only Khurnak Fort but also Dokpo Karpo and Nyagzu were part of Tibet. In 1929, following the protests of Kashmir Durbar, they decided to drop the British claims made in behalf of Kashmir state. The Chinese established their military presence in

1591-568: The northern bank. On 5–6 May 2020, a face-off between about 250 Indian and Chinese troops near the lake resulted in casualties on both sides. On 29–30 August 2020, Indian troops occupied many heights on the south bank of Pangong Tso. The heights included Rezang La , Reqin La, Black Top, Hanan, Helmet, Gurung Hill , Gorkha Hill and Magar Hill. Some of these heights are in the grey zone of the LAC and overlook Chinese camps. India chose to pull back from these positions as leverage for larger disengagement. Both

1634-404: The radical ཀ /ka/ and see what happens when it becomes ཀྲ /kra/ or རྐ /rka/ (pronounced /ka/). In both cases, the symbol for ཀ /ka/ is used, but when the ར /ra/ is in the middle of the consonant and vowel, it is added as a subscript. On the other hand, when the ར /ra/ comes before the consonant and vowel, it is added as a superscript. ར /ra/ actually changes form when it

1677-453: The script's invention, and there are no dedicated symbols for tone. However, since tones developed from segmental features, they can usually be correctly predicted by the archaic spelling of Tibetan words. One aspect of the Tibetan script is that the consonants can be written either as radicals or they can be written in other forms, such as subscript and superscript forming consonant clusters . To understand how this works, one can look at

1720-690: The scripts in the first version of the Unicode Standard in 1991, in the Unicode block U+1000–U+104F. However, in 1993, in version 1.1, it was removed (the code points it took up would later be used for the Burmese script in version 3.0). The Tibetan script was re-added in July, 1996 with the release of version 2.0. The Unicode block for Tibetan is U+0F00–U+0FFF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks and special symbols used in religious texts: Lukung Lukung

1763-805: The southern bank of Pangong begins from Lukung , runs eastward via Thakung Heights, Helmet Top , Phursook Bay , till India-claimed-LAC at Bangong Co . Other important features in this range are Helmet Top , Black Top , Gurung Hill , Spanggur Gap , Spanggur Tso , Rezang La , Rechin La , Rezang La II , etc. China-Claimed-LAC runs via Finger-4 in Changchenmo Range on north bank of Pangong Tso to Phursook Bay on south bank, then via Helmet Top, Gurung Hill, Spanggur Gap, Magar Hill, Mukhpari, Rezang La (1962 battle), Rezang Top, Rechin La, Rezang La II, Mount Sajum . India-Claimed-LAC runs further northeast of China-Claimed-LAC via Finger-8 in Changchenmo Range on north bank of Pangong Tso to Bangong Co on south bank, then via Black Top and Gurung Hill, and then along same

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1806-467: The translation of Buddhist scriptures emerged during the early 9th century. Standard orthography has not been altered since then, while the spoken language has changed by, for example, losing complex consonant clusters . As a result, in all modern Tibetan dialects and in particular in the Standard Tibetan of Lhasa , there is a great divergence between current spelling, which still reflects

1849-512: The vowel ཨུ /u/ is placed underneath consonants. Old Tibetan included a reversed form of the mark for /i/, the gigu 'verso', of uncertain meaning. There is no distinction between long and short vowels in written Tibetan, except in loanwords , especially transcribed from the Sanskrit . The Tibetan alphabet, when used to write other languages such as Balti , Chinese and Sanskrit , often has additional and/or modified graphemes taken from

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