Lake of No Return is a small (c. 1 km length?) body of water lying south of Pangsau (also called Pansaung) village, the first habitation in Burma (Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

) on the Ledo Road

Ledo Road

The Ledo Road was built during World War II so that the Western Allies could supply the Chinese as an alternative to the Burma Road which had been cut by the Japanese in 1942. It was renamed the Stilwell Road in early 1945 at the suggestion of Chiang Kai-shek...

 (formerly called Stilwell Road, the road the Western Allies

Western Allies

The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Soviet Union,...

 started building in 1942 to supply the Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 armies of Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

), 2 km. east of the Pangsau Pass

Pangsau pass

Pangsau Pass, in altitude, lies on the crest of the Patkai Hills on the India-Burma border. The reputed route of the 13th century invasion of Assam in India by the Ahoms, a Shan tribe, the pass offers one of the easiest routes into Burma from the Assam plains...

 (3727') on the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

-Burma border. The area is home to the Tangsa

Tangsa

The Tangsa, termed Tangshang in Myanmar , is a community of several tens of thousands living in Changlang and Tirap Districts of Arunachal Pradesh,and parts of Tinsukia District of Assam, in north-eastern India, and across the border in Sagaing Region, Myanmar . The Tangshang in Myanmar were...

 tribe. Since the improvement of relations between India and Burma, the lake has come to play a part in the development of tourism in the nearby Indian Changlang District

Changlang District

Changlang district is located in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, located south of Lohit district and north of Tirap district. As of 2011 it is the second most populous district of Arunachal Pradesh , after Papum Pare.-Post-independence:...

, which borders on Burma.

The most common account of the origin of the lake's name is the one told, for instance, on the Changlang District's website (the district is in Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh is a state of India, located in the far northeast. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south, and shares international borders with Burma in the east, Bhutan in the west, and the People's Republic of China in the north. The majority of the territory is claimed by...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

), which speculates that the name is due to the number of Allied aircraft (on their approach to The Hump

The Hump

The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from India to China to resupply the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek and the units of the United States Army Air Forces based in...

) which crashlanded in it during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, a story repeated in both the Indian press and in Indian fiction. American sources repeat that account, for instance in the 2008 book by Brendan I. Koerner

Brendan I. Koerner

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor for Wired magazine and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate magazine.He sometimes writes using the pseudonym "Mr...

, Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II

Now the Hell Will Start

Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II is a 2008 book by United States author Brendan I. Koerner. It is a non-fiction narrative investigating and recounting the story of Herman Perry, an African-American World War II soldier stationed in the...

, about the life of Herman Perry

Herman Perry

Herman Perry was an American World War II soldier, convicted murderer, and fugitive from the army in India and Burma....

, a U.S. serviceman working on the Ledo Road who fled into the jungle and ended up marrying into the Naga

Naga people

The term Naga people refers to a conglomeration of several tribes inhabiting the North Eastern part of India and north-western Burma. The tribes have similar cultures and traditions, and form the majority ethnic group in the Indian state of Nagaland...

 tribe (of which the Tangsa are a subset): "The Americans called it the Lake of No Return, on account of all the crashed planes concealed in its depths."

At least three more stories explain the name. The second has it that a group of Japanese soldiers returning from battle lost their way and ended up at the lake. There, they were stricken by malaria and died and hence it is called the Lake of No Return. According to a third story, US Army soldiers, working on the Ledo Road, were sent to examine the lake and got trapped by the undergrowth and perished trying to escape. A fourth story says this "is the 'lake of no return' [because] retreating British troops in 1942 got lost in quicksand." Adding myth to legend, one author claims he has encountered the name on a document written by one of the Ten Lost Tribes

Ten Lost Tribes

The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel refers to those tribes of ancient Israel that formed the Kingdom of Israel and which disappeared from Biblical and all other historical accounts after the kingdom was destroyed in about 720 BC by ancient Assyria...

 of Israel, which he claims still hides out in the area.

The lake still maintains its reputation; the Indian newspaper The Telegraph

The Telegraph (Kolkata)

The Telegraph is an Indian daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Kolkata since 1982. It is published by the ABP Group and the newspaper vies with the Times of India for the position of having the widest widest circulation of any newspaper in Eastern India.According to the Audit...

 reported, in a story on the possible reopening of the Ledo Road in 2007, that "close by [Pansaung] is the Lake of No Return — the local Bermuda Triangle

Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances....

. According to folklore, aircraft that fly over the lake never return." The lake's reputation is advertised in hopes of making the area more attractive to tourists: "Who knows, the ‘Indian’ Bermuda Triangle might just turn out to be the next tourist-puller of the region."