Karuo Cultural Relics in Chamdo

Karuo Cultural Relics in Chamdo

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The Karuo Relics Site (卡若遗址) is located approximately 12 kilometers south of Karuo Town (卡若镇) in Chamdo District (昌都市), Tibet Autonomous Region (西藏自治区). The site covers an area of approximately 38,000 square meters.

The Karuo Relics Site includes the remains of 31 houses, 3 stone walls, 2 round stone platforms, 3 stone enclosures, and 4 ash pits. Numerous artifacts have been unearthed, including 7,978 stone tools, 368 bone tools, over 200 pottery shards (46 of which are reconstructable), and 50 decorative items. This site is of significant importance for the study of the history of the Tibetan people (藏民族), the Tibetan Plateau’s (西藏高原) human history, and pre-historic Tibetan culture (西藏史前文化史).

In November 20, 1996, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国国务院) declared Karuo Relics Site as one of the Fourth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units (全国重点文物保护单位).

Key Information:

Site Name: Karuo Relics Site (卡若遗址)
Location: Karuo Village (卡若村), Karuo Town (卡若镇), Chamdo District (昌都市), Tibet Autonomous Region (西藏自治区)
Period: Neolithic Era (新石器时代)
Area: Approximately 38,000 m²
Protection Level: National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit (全国重点文物保护单位)
Approval by: State Council of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国国务院)
Number: 4-0019-3-003

Historical Timeline

Discovery and Excavation

In 1977, workers at the site of the former Karuo Cement Factory (卡若水泥厂) discovered the relics during construction activities.
In May 1978, the Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Management Committee (西藏自治区文物管理委员会) officially initiated the excavation of the site.
From May to August 1979, a second excavation was conducted by the Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Management Committee in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Archaeological Institute (中国社会科学院考古研究所), the Yunnan Provincial Museum (云南省博物馆), and the History Department of Sichuan University (四川大学历史系考古专业).
In 2007, the Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Bureau (西藏自治区文物局) entrusted the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (北京古建筑研究院) to develop a comprehensive plan for the site. It was designated as a heritage park, with a total investment of 120 million yuan. The project includes a Karuo Relics Exhibition Area, a Tibetan Folk Experience Zone, and a Cultural Heritage Expo Park.

Features of the Site

The Karuo Relics Site features two types of house remains: semi-pit houses and above-ground houses. The semi-pit houses include three varieties: round-bottomed, flat-bottomed, and stone-walled houses. The details of these are as follows:

Round-bottomed semi-pit houses are either circular or square with depths ranging from 12 to 54 cm.
Flat-bottomed semi-pit houses come in square or rectangular shapes, with depths between 30 to 93 cm and areas ranging from 5 to 25 square meters.
Stone-walled semi-pit houses are made of gravel walls, and can also be square or rectangular.
The above-ground houses also come in square and rectangular shapes, with an area ranging from 20 to 30 square meters, and the largest house measuring approximately 70 square meters with two rooms.

The most common construction material for the semi-pit houses was grass and mud.

Artifacts Found at the Site

The Karuo Relics Site yielded a variety of stone tools, including shovels, axes, plows, drills, hammers, spears, arrowheads, as well as cutting tools, scraping machines, pounding tools, and percussion instruments. The materials used for these tools include agate, silica stone, flint, jade, volcanic rock, and rhyolite.

Among these, large chipped stone tools, fine stone tools, and ground stone tools coexist. The large chipped stone tools make up 85% of the total tools discovered.

Bone tools unearthed from the site primarily served as production tools, with a few serving as decorative items. These included needles, pins, axes, knives, ornaments, hairpins, bracelets, beads, and pendants.

The pottery found at the site is sand-tempered pottery, classified into coarse sand and fine sand types. Pottery colors include red, yellow, gray, and black, with yellow being the predominant color. Patterns include lines, squares, diamonds, intertwining arcs, shells, circles, and square shapes. Some rare examples of painted pottery were also found, including the double-bodied pottery jar (双体陶罐), a unique piece in Tibetan archaeology.

Notable Artifact:

Pot: The pot has a wide mouth with a sharp lip, a short neck, and a deep belly. The pot’s base is flat, with a mouth diameter of 11.6 cm, a bottom diameter of 7.8 cm, and a height of 23.8 cm. The pot is made of red sand-tempered pottery, with a rope pattern near the mouth and two perforations.

Historical and Cultural Significance

The discovery of the Karuo Relics Site provides evidence that human activity in the Tibetan Plateau (西藏高原) dates back over 5,000 years. It also extends the known history of Tibet by 3,000 years, showing that civilization was developing in Tibet well before written records.

Importantly, the Karuo culture is not an isolated primitive culture of the Tibetan Plateau. Rather, it shows strong connections with the ancient cultures of the Yellow River Basin (黄河流域) and the Yangtze River Basin (长江流域). Artifacts such as jade and sea shells suggest that the Karuo inhabitants (卡若居民) engaged in trade and exchanges with neighboring regions, breaking down the isolation caused by the mountains and rivers of Tibet. This supports the idea that the Karuo Relics Site represents a cultural crossroads, where the northern fine stone tool culture, the millet culture of the Yangtze River Valley, and the shell culture of the southern regions all converged.

Thus, the Karuo Relics Site provides a valuable glimpse into the multicultural and multi-ethnic nature of the Kham region (康巴地区), which began to form as early as the Neolithic Era (新石器时代). The site reflects the interaction between northern, central, and southern cultures across the Hengduan Mountains (横断山区), and it showcases the historical diversity that shaped the cultural fabric of Chamdo (昌都) and surrounding areas.

Significance of the Karuo Cultural Relics

The Karuo Cultural Relics site, located approximately 12 kilometers south of Karuo Town (卡若镇) in Karuo District (卡若区), Chamdo (昌都市), Tibet Autonomous Region, is an invaluable archaeological site. The discovery of this site has shattered the long-held notion of Tibet as a “forbidden zone for life” due to its harsh environment. It provides essential physical evidence for studying the migration of ancient southwestern Chinese ethnic groups and their cultural connections with areas like the Yellow River (黄河) basin. The site also plays a crucial role in understanding the origins of the Tibetan (藏族) people.

Karuo is the first scientifically excavated ancient cultural site in Tibet, marking a landmark moment in Tibet’s historical and archaeological studies. The excavation of the site has pushed back Tibet’s known history to about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, proving that early ancestors of the Chinese civilization inhabited the region long before recorded history. The artifacts discovered at the site show that the culture of the Karuo site was closely linked with ancient cultures from regions such as Gansu (甘肃), Qinghai (青海), and Yunnan (云南) in the Yellow River’s upper reaches, as well as the Yuanmo culture within Yunnan.

The site holds immense value for the study of Tibetan history, the human history of the Tibetan Plateau, and the prehistory of Tibet.

Importance in Archaeology

The Karuo Cultural Relics provide critical insights into the ancient human life from 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, revealing how early Tibetan societies lived and worked. It is an important site for studying the Neolithic archaeological culture of Tibet, defining the archaeological characteristics of the Tibetan Neolithic period, and exploring the livelihood patterns of prehistoric societies on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The archaeological findings at Karuo are a significant contribution to research on the history of the Tibetan people and the development of Tibetan culture. It sheds light on the patterns of early human life in Tibet and gives valuable evidence for understanding the interconnections between early Tibetan and other Chinese cultures.

Protection Measures

On November 20, 1996, the Karuo Cultural Relics site was officially listed as a National Key Cultural Heritage Site by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, underscoring its significance in the preservation of China’s rich archaeological heritage.

Honors and Recognition

In October 2021, the Karuo Cultural Relics site was named one of the “Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries of the Century,” cementing its position as one of the most important archaeological sites in China.

Visitor Information

Location

The Karuo Cultural Relics site is situated in Karuo Village (卡若村), Karuo Town (卡若镇), Karuo District (卡若区), Chamdo (昌都市), Tibet Autonomous Region.

How to Get There

To visit the Karuo Cultural Relics site, take bus No. 8 from the center of Chamdo (昌都市) and get off at the Karuo Cultural Relics Station (卡若遗址站). From there, it’s a short walk to the site.