The Lhasa River, also called Kyi Chu (Tibetan: སྐྱིད་ཆུ་, Wylie: sKyid chu, Chinese: 拉薩河; pinyin: Lāsà hé), is a northern tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in the south of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

[4] It flows through the south of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, and is a left tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo.

[6] The highest tributary rises at around 5,290 metres (17,360 ft) on the southern slope of the Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains.

[10] The river is navigable from its mouth on the Yarlung Tsangpo up to the city of Lhasa and to altitudes of up to 2,650 metres (8,690 ft).

[4] The cool temperatures, with the upstream reaches above 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) freezing over at times, has the effect of delaying growth of fish such as Oxygymnocypris stewartii.

[14] The Tibetan plateau has thin air and clouds, which combined with the clear water gives strong illumination from a full moon.

[12] In 2009 it was reported that fish caught in the lower reaches of the river had been decreasing slightly in size, probably due to increasing demand and construction of hydroelectric dams.

[16] Riwo Ganden Nampar Gyelpé Ling, the first fortress of the Gelukpa sect, was built on the left bank in 1409, about 35 miles (56 km) upstream from Lhasa.

[17] The ruins of the Sne'u rdzong fortress are on the left bank of the river, opposite the Norbulingka summer palace of the Dalai Lamas in Lhasa.

Groves of poplar and willow, in shapely clumps, combine with the grassy stretches to give in places a parklike appearance to the scene.

[1] McGovern also described the Yutok-sampa, or Turquoise Bridge, a structure with walls and a roof that crossed what had been the main Lhasa River but was now a stagnant canal.

[21] As late as 1984 kowas, yak hide boats similar to coracles, were being used to ferry passengers across the Lhasa River.

A waste water treatment plant designed to process 50,000 tons of sewage per day was commissioned in July 2011.

[24] Before the Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China, the agricultural engineer Peter Aufschnaiter designed a dam on the Lhasa River to protect the palace of Norbulingka in the city of Lhasa from flooding, with a water supply canal to the city.

[25] In 1948 Heinrich Harrer had to intervene to reinforce a dyke that protected the Norbulingka from inundations by the Lhasa River, which was 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) wide after the monsoon.

A fleet of 40 Yak skin boats were used to carry granite blocks extracted from a quarry upstream of the Norbulingka.

The site was often visited by members of the Tibetan government, who would give out silk scarves, and rewards were distributed to the workers.

[28] The project includes a reservoir and a power station with potential annual generating capacity of 599 million kilowatt hours.