The Khampa area of the Hengduan Mountains and along the three rivers (Nujiang, Lancang and Jinsha) encompasses Qamdo precture of Tibet, and the Tibetan autonomous prefectures of Garze in Sichuan, Yushau in Qinghai, and Deqen in Yunnan. Owing to its remote location and difficult access, the clothing worn by the Khampa people bears distinctive local characteristics.

Qamdo clothing, with its emphasis on decorative art and featuring sharply contrasting colors, has an overall effect of elegant resplendence. It expresses the candor and grit of the Khampa people, as well as reflecting their pragmatism, aesthetic sensibility, and consciousness of their own culture.

Tibetans in the Khampa area are largely nomadic, and their clothing is adapted to suit such a lifestyle. This is a high altitude, bitterly cold area, with a long winter, short summer, and a huge temperature disparity between day and night. The robes worn by the Khampa people are consequently baggier and looser than those worn in the -Tsang area, making it easier for them to slip their arms in and out of their sleeves as they please. At night, their robes are untied at the waist and used as bedding. It is the custom for women, after easing out of their sleeves, to tie them at the back, while men tie them at the front. The Qamdo people generally wear their robes with the right sleeve hanging free.

The Khampa people love to adorn themselves with jewelry, and have a particular liking for agate, coral, amber, pearls, turquoise, ivory, gold and silver ornaments. Two necklaces, dating back 4,000-5,000 years, have been unearthed from Qamdo's Karub Ruins. One is made up of 40 cuboidal stones and 20 cylindrical bone segments. Its style is fundamentally the same as those worn by the Khampa people today, reflecting the heritage of the Khampa people from their Karub ancestors.

In Qamdo, clothing accessories and ornaments are seen as a symbol of wealth and beauty. The poorest of people will trade all they have for a few ornaments, thereby giving them the confidence to hold their heads up before their peers. These days, the wealthier Khampa people would think nothing of spending hundreds of thousands of yuan on a single ornament.

Clothing ornaments range from those worn on the crown of the head, to the hair, ears, neck, chest, waists, wrists and fingers. They include hairpins, earrings, necklaces, amulet boxes, flint bags, sewing kits, purses, waist knives, bracelets and rings, made of gold, sliver, copper and ivory and inlaid with gem stones.
The clothing in Qamdo falls into three styles: pastoral, agricultural and clerical. The clothes worn by herders are usually made from home produced fabric, such as sheep hide and home-woven woolen fabrics, the ornaments they wear are more sophisticated, elaborate and expensive than those of agricultural inhabitants.

Agricultural areas utilize a greater scope of fabrics, such as leather, silk and wool, and the women wear fewer, more delicate ornaments than pastoral women.

Clerical wear is of a simple design. Lamas wear a red vest and a maroon sarong beneath a maroon kasaya. A kasaya is generally a piece of cloth 70centimeters wide and of a length 2.5 times the height of the wearer. The cloth is simply wrapped around the upper body, with the right shoulder exposed, and its end drapes to the feet.

Different ranks of lama wear specific fabrics, colors, styles and hats. High-ranking lamas and living Buddhas usually wear yellow silk kasayas, and their vests are laced with yellow silk. The kasayas of different sects are basically the same, though lamas of the Kagyu and Sakya sects wear white sarongs.

The simplest way of distinguishing the four sects of Tibetan Buddhism is by their hats. The lamas of the Nyingma Sect wear tweed hats, with an upturned brim and a pointed crown. The front opens in the shape of a lotus petal, so the hat is known as the "lotus flower hat." Sakya lamas wear "worer hats," made of red tweed. The hat has an arched crown, and the brim folds together on both sides. The Kagyu lamas wear broad brimmed hats, dark-blue in color with alternating red and white cross patterns. The Gelug Sect hat is yellow and white cross patterns. The Gelug Sect hat is yellow and crest-shaped, with a greenish-yellow fringe uppermost. Other than these hats of discrete sects, there are also specific hats within sects that distinguish particular ranks.

In the Khamp area, both men and women wear their hair long, styled in such a way as to reflect gender, marriage status, and their region.
Qamdo women, both in the city and nearby agricultural areas, plait their hair into braids and intertwine them with red silk thread to make a single braid. This hairstyle is worn with red silk thread to make a single braid. This hairstyle is worn with a piece of dark-red coral inlaid with a turquoise pinned to the crown. Women in pastoral areas prefer yellow amber hair ornaments. In Qamdo's Garma, Lhatog and Gyamda, unmarried women wear a single piece of yellow amber in their hair, while married women wear at least three. Younger women wear a single plait, which they decorate with gem stones, shells and gold, and silver and jade ornaments, the total weight of which can add up to a few kilos.

Khampa men also plait their into a single braid, extended by a braid of woven red and black silk threads, then wound up around the crown, leaving red silk threads hanging over their forehead. Men in farming areas do not generally wear hair ornaments, while in pastoral areas, men wear a silver, diamond-shaped hairpin. More affluent men wear large rings or ivory rings around their braid.

Khampa men and women in pastoral and agricultural areas wear Tibetan knives at their waist. Men in their holiday best wear two knives, one long and one short, together with a flint box. In some areas, men also wear a gilded amulet box. The long knife is about 50 cm long, and its owner generally delights in keeping it in a silver sheath engraved with a tiger, lion, dragon or phoenix. A woman's knife is no longer than 20 cm, and has an elegant design and exquisite workmanship. It usually hangs beside a silver sewing kit at the belt.

In the past Khampa men and women wore knives for use in their daily lives, for self-protection, with purposes of adornment carrying the lowest priority. In the wake of recent social development, wearing a knife these days in purely decorative rater than for any practical purpose.