Huarui, means the tribe of heroes.

There is a story about how the name of Huarui came into being. In ancient times, there were two brothers lived at the foot of mountain Anymachin, one named Ashow and the other named Hwashow. Both of them are leaders of their respective tribes. Afterwards, the two brothers took their tribes to north, and people called the area where Ashow lived as Arui - where today it is Qilian County in Qinghai province. The place where the younger brother Hwashow took his tribes to is Huarui area today. Although this is only folklore, it indicates that the tribe of Huarui was moved from other places.

Huarui Tibetans called themselves Bo or Huarui Gabu, and men there always wear white gowns. All these indicate that Huarui Tibetan has the same ancestor as other Tibetan areas. From ancient times to today, Huarui Tibetans have been famous for their bravery, brilliant culture and famous people in history among all Tibetan areas. 　

The main Huarui Tibetan history starts from Tubo Dynasty. In fact, the earliest time when Tuboes went to Huarui area is 699 A.D. Zanpo, who was the brother of the king, surrendered to Tang Dynasty. His army and followings were arranged to live in Hongyuan Valley, where it is Tianzhu and Gulang County in Gansu province today.

From 753 A.D. to 764 A.D., the army of Tubo occupied some areas in Gansu and Qinghai province, and some Tuboes moved to Huarui area. Investigation shows that most inhabitants in Huarui today belong to those tribes.

It is because of its background of Tubo and its good conservation of traditional culture, Huarui dialect has its own character and different from other Tibetan areas. There are lots of ancient Tibetan vocabularies in Huarui dialect. Some words disappeared or few used in other Tibetan areas are still quite popular in Huarui area.