Elemental compositions for the basaltic rocks from Xialu ophiolite, Xigaze, central Yalung Zangpo ophiolite in southern Tibet were studied in this paper. Accoding to a detailed geochemical discrimination of selected elements from 246 samples from literature and this work, the authors  identify at least four different types of tectonic settings within the 1 500 km-long Yalung Zangpo ophiolite.  The four-type basalts are 1) continental arc; 2) mantle plume or hot spot; 3) MORB and oceanic arc; and 4) typical oceanic arc. The presence of multiple tectonic settings seen from geochemical signatures of associated basalts within the Yalung Zangpo suture zone reconstructs a long-evolutional history of the Tethyan Ocean.