The Karub site, discovered in 1977 on the outskirts of Chamdo, is one of the most significant Neolithic discoveries in Tibet. Excavations uncovered the remains of a settlement more than 5,000 years old: semi-subterranean houses, stone tools, pottery, and animal bones indicating a mixed farming and hunting economy. The finds pushed the evidence for permanent human habitation on the Tibetan plateau back considerably from what had been assumed, and demonstrated that the early Chamdo area supported a settled agricultural population at high altitude long before the historical record begins.
The artefacts are now held in the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, and the site itself is not developed for visitors. But the Karub District — named after the archaeological site — is the administrative heart of Chamdo today, and the discovery underpins the city's claim to a deep history that predates both the Tibetan kingdom and the monastery on the hill.