| Thok Jalung | |
| Width: | 300 |
| Pushpin Map: | Tibet |
| Pushpin Label: | Thok Jalung |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Tibet Automomous Region |
| Coordinates: | 32.24°N 81.37°W |
| State/Province: | Tibet Autonomous Region |
| Country: | People's Republic of China |
Thok Jalung[1] was a goldfield in Tibet[2] that gained international attention upon its discovery by the west.[3] [4] Thok Jalung was one of many goldfields that stretched from Lhasa into western Tibet, north of the Tsangpo River watershed. Situated on the Changtang, above sea level,[5] Thok Jalung was the highest altitude goldfield in the world[6] and at the time was believed to be the highest altitude in the world inhabited all year round.[7]
Thok Jalung was first visited by a non-Tibetan on 26 August 1867 when the pundit Nain Singh Rawat, who was secretly surveying Tibet, visited the mines.[8] He would later say that Thok Jalung was the coldest place he had ever visited.[9] It was not until 1906 that the first European visited Thok Jalung.[7]
Thok Jalung was very productive and Nain Singh reported seeing one nugget weighing nearly .[6] The goldfield was about long,[4] with a small stream running through the field, used to wash the gold out of the soil.[10]
Miners lived in yak-hair tents pitched in holes two or more metres below the ground. There were about 300 miners during the summer and over 6 000 during winter, as frozen ground was less likely to collapse.[6] As in many cases the miners' families were also staying onsite, one author has suggested a winter population of 20 000 at Thok Jalung.[11]
Tibetans believed that gold nuggets contained life and were the parents of gold dust. If a nugget was excavated in error from Thok Jalung it was immediately reburied.[12]