This karst cave is the site of the discovery of the earliest hominin fossil found on the Tibetan Plateau, the Xiahe mandible.

The mandible, by way of palaeoproteomic analysis, is the first confirmed discovery of a Denisovan fossil outside of Denisova Cave.

This fossil discovery shows that archaic hominins were present in a high-altitude, low-oxygen environment by around 160,000 years ago.

He passed the fossil to Jigme Tenpe Wangchug [zh], the sixth Gungthang [de] tulku, who donated it to Lanzhou University.

[3] Several lithic artefacts and animal bones with cut marks were discovered at the entrance to the cave.

[1] In 2020 Denisovan DNA plus stone artefacts and animal bones were recovered from the Buddhist holy cave on the Tibetan Plateau by scientists from the University of Wollongong, Australia including Professor Bo Li.