Qinghai's culture is heavily influenced by China proper and Tibet, given the close proximities as well as a shared history.

Culturally speaking, the Tibetans of Qinghai are either Amdo or Kham Tibetans. The Amdo Tibetans distinguishes themselves from the Kham Tibetan and U-Tsang Tibetan in many aspects. For example, the Amdo Tibetan dialect retains many consonant clusters from Classical Tibetan that have been lost in Lhasa Tibetan dialect: in Lhasa these clusters are retained in spelling only. An analogy can be drawn with Chinese, with Mandarin being Lhasa Tibetan and Cantonese being Amdo Tibetan: like Cantonese, the Amdo dialect retains a pronunciation closer to the ancient tongue.

Religious Culture of Qinghai

Qinghai Province is the birthplace of Zongkaba, founder of Gelu Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, where Dalai Lama XIV and Panchen Lama X were born, hence Gelu Sect has become influential.

There are 304 temples in Qinghai, more than 20 of which are well known at home and abroad. Taer Temple, Qutan Temple, Longwu Temple and other temples have been listed as key units of national cultural relics.

Every year, temples of Tibetan Buddhism of various sects here hold ritual meeting of different scales and frequencies, where ritual king dance and horse-head guardian warrior dance are performed with other activities carried out, such as Buddha in the Sun.