The plateau is administered by China but also claimed by India.

Its Tibetan/Ladakhi name is Amtogar or Amtogor Tso[2][3] which means "encounter with a round object".

[4] The lake is part of Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang,[5] The lake is located just south of the Kunlun Mountains.

China National Highway 219 passes some 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the southwest of the lake on its way from Shiquanhe, Tibet to Yarkand, Xinjiang.

In the 1950s, prior to the Sino-Indian War, India collected salt from this lake and two other lakes in Aksai Chin to study the economic feasibility of potential salt mining operations.