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This study is the first to examine delta O-18 in daily water vapor at Taxkorgan on the eastern Pamir Plateau. The results show that changes in observed and simulated delta O-18 values in water vapor/precipitation at the event scale (using a LMDZ-iso model) were mainly affected by temperature. The influences of humidity, precipitation amount, and different moisture sources, such as the westerlies, local evaporated moisture, and polar air masses, on delta O-18 values are comparatively weak. The combination of the delta O-18 record from the Murtagata ice core, 58 km away from the study area, and the LMDZ-iso simulated annual delta O-18 pattern in precipitation at Taxkorgan also demonstrated that temperature, and particularly the temperature of the regions over which the southern branch of the westerlies flows, is the most important factor controlling delta O-18 variations. The results from this study area, which is dominated by the westerlies throughout the year, are markedly different from those derived from parts of the Tibetan Plateau that are dominated by the combined influences of the westerlies in winter and the Indian monsoon in summer. The results suggested that the eastern Pamir Plateau is an ideal location to reconstruct past temperature variations and that the delta O-18 records preserved in ice cores from the region are a suitable and robust proxy for temperature. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.