Tsomgo is made of two words 'Tso' meaning "lake" and 'Mgo' meaning "head" which gives the literal meaning as "Source Of The Lake”.. The lake is about 40 kilometres (25 mi) away from Gangtok on the Gangtok-Nathula highway.Further, the road to Nathu La skirts the lake on the north side.. The Chinese border crossing is only some 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east-northeast in a straight line,but some 18 kilometres (11 mi) by road.