Lhoka is located in the Yarlung River Valley, and thus it was known as Yarlung in the past. Historical records, legends and many archeological findings suggest that about 4 million years ago, the ancestors of modern Tibetans inhabited the Yarlung river Valley. There is a tract of land named "Soitang" in Sara Village near Zetang. Legend Says it was the first cultivated field in Tibet.

The Yarlung inhabitants gradually consolidated into a tribe and turned to the valley from wasteland into an agricultural paradise. The first Tibetan King Nitri Tsampo, who reigned in the early part of the 2nd century BC, was actually the chief of the Yarlung tribe. He established the Bod Kingdom and formed the Tsampo hereditary system. During his reign, the 8th Tsampo, Zhigung, began construction on his own tomb. Evidence from this tomb shows that the Yarlung tribe had shifted from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal clan society.

The 9th Tsampo, Bode Gunggyai, began the organized construction of canals in Yarlung areas to divert water as a means of expanding the cultivated area. At this time, the Yarlung also introduced the wooden plough. The l1th Tsampo, Yishiuli, in order to meet the needs of development in agriculture and animal husbandry, introduced a system of numbers, units of measure for the area, and other units of measure. From the reign of the 9th Tsampo to the time of the l5th Tsampo, six palaces were built in Qenyu, which is today Qoingyai County in Shannan. Qoingyai was the established capital of the Yarlung Tribe. During the reign of the 28th Tsampo, Lhatotori Nyitsang, Buddhism spread into the Yarlung River Valley. The Tsampos claimed the sutras and Buddhist musical instruments brought by monks from Tianzhu (India) were secret and enshrined them in Yumbolhakng.

During the 6th century, the Yarlung River Valley culture shifted into a slave society. At that time, people could melt iron, copper and silver and began to make metal weapons on a large scale, laying a good foundation materially for the 30th Tsampo, Dari Nyizai, to establish the Tubo Kingdom. Dari Nyizai's son, Namri Lungtsang, inherited his father's cause. He annexed strong neighboring tribes and constantly expanded his territory, making the Yarlung Tribe the strongest in Tibet.

In the Middle of the 7th century, the 32th Tsampo, Songtsan Gambo, organized an army and conquered the Supi and Yamtong tribes. He continued his expansion and eventually united all of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under the Tubo Kingdom. He then moved the capital from Qoingyai to Lhasa. In the "Tubo Map" which was shaped as laying Raksasi and personally made by Songtsan Gambo, Shannan's Moinyu looked like the left palm of Raksasi while Changzhub Township in Nedong County was a ruling center Though the political and military centers in Tibet were moved north, Shannan, as the birth place of the Tubo Xingdom, retained its strategic and historical importance.