Khawa Karpo, in the eastern Himalayas, is a mountain considered sacred throughout
Tibet, and is internationally recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot. Numerous areas within
this landscape are considered ‘sacred’ by the indigenous Tibetans of the region, who interact with
these sites in ways potentially beneficial to conservation. Our previous remote sensing study
indicated that sacred sites are found in habitats with greater species richness, diversity, and
endemism than randomly selected non-sacred sites. This study examines the role of sanctity in
biodiversity conservation within habitats in the Khawa Karpo region by pairing plots within the
same habitats in sacred and non-sacred areas. Understory richness, diversity, cover, and number of
useful species are measured; for trees, richness, diversity, cover, and density are measured. Results
indicate that within habitats sanctity does not affect understory plant communities; however,
within sacred areas trees are larger ( p = 0.003) and forests have greater cover ( p = 0.003) than
non-sacred areas. Our results indicate that, whereas placement of sacred areas and preservation of
vegetation cover affects useful plants, biodiversity and endemism, within habitats sacred sites
preserve old growth trees and forest structure. In sum, Tibetan sacred sites are ecologically unique
and important for conservation on varying scales of landscape, community, and species.