Rock paintings in China can be divided into southern and northern schools.

Southern school rock paintings depict mainly religious rituals and are painted in red. They are distributed in an area from southwest to south China.

Northern school rock paintings, carved into rocks, show hunting activities in north China. They are distributed in an area from the northeast to northwest and southwest. The part from northeast to southwest China extends from Heilongjiang to Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet. Once in Inner Mongolia,
 
Leopard Chases Dear:Carved rock painting in Renmodong
 
the rock paintings moved northwestward in two ways: one way connected with Central Asia via Altaishan, Tianshan and Kunlunshan Mountains, and the Pamir Plateau; the other way linked up with Central Asia via Yingshan, Helanshan and Qilianshan Mountains, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

When rock paintings entered the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, they did not exclusively follow the road to Central Asia. Instead, they moved across northern and western Tibet, and began to move southward in Changtang to meet those from northwest Sichuan and northwest Yunnan.

Rock paintings in Tibet belong to the northern school. So far as themes are concerned, they depict hunting and religious rituals.

When rock paintings were created in ancient Tibet, their creators not intend to record what had happened or were happening then: tribal production, wars and religious rituals.