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The Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Golog is located at the source of the Yellow River, with a fragile ecological environment and an important position for ecological protection. The prefecture is the hometown of Gesar culture in China, and the Tibetan population accounts for more than 90%. As one of the main venues for local residents, temples carry multiple cultural functions. Exploring its spatial distribution characteristics and land use patterns is of great significance to the ecological and environmental protection of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Based on the remote sensing data from 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020, building buffers with ArcGIS, using spatial statistical methods, this article analyzed the geographical distribution characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism temples at different altitudes, slopes and aspects, and analyzed the changes in land use and landscape indexes within 0-6 km buffer of the temples. The results showed that 86% of the temples were located in areas with an altitude of less than 4373 m, of which the number of temples was the largest in the range of 4046-4226 m; 72% of the temples were located on slopes with a slope range of 6-15 ° and 15-25 °. During the study period, the main land use type in the study area was grassland; grassland was also the main land use type where land transfer occurred. Among them, the transfer of grassland to woodland and the transfer of unused land to grassland were the main transfer types. The building land mainly came from the transfer of grassland, which increased by 200% from 1990 to 2020. The proportions of farmland and woodland in the three buffer zones of the temple were far higher than the average level of the study area. Among them, the proportion of woodland in the buffer zones of 0-2 km, 2-4 km and 4-6 km was the largest in the study period. The average values were 19.99%, 19.56%, 17.69% respectively. The closer the woodland was to the temple, the more it would be affected by it, so that the nearby virgin forest could be preserved. However, the landscape index in the buffer zone showed that the closer to the temple, the more complex the structure of the landscape pattern, and the existence of the temple might also cause the fragmentation of the surrounding landscape. This research can provide a theoretical basis for the improvement of the ecological environment in Tibetan cultural areas, and also can provide a reference for the study of other ethnic minority cultural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]