A strictly aerobic and facultatively psychrophilic bacterium, strain 3-0-1T, was isolated from Lake Yamdrok on the Tibetan Plateau, China. Cells were Gram-negative and short-rod-shaped. Strain 3-0-1T formed circular, opaque, yellow colonies, and grew at 0–5 % (w/v) NaCl, pH 5.0–11.0 and 5–35 °C. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences of various species with validly published names showed that strain 3-0-1T belongs to the genus Sphingobacterium, family Sphingobacteriaceae, sharing the highest similarity with Sphingobacterim nematocida M-SX103T (96.62 %) and less than 95 % similarity with all the other species in the genus Sphingobactrium. The predominant isoprenoid quinone of strain 3-0-1T was identified as menaquinone 7 (MK-7), the major polar lipid was identified as phosphatidylethanolamine and the DNA G+C content was determined to be 42.5 mol%. The predominant cellular fatty acids were identified as summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω7c and/or C16:1 ω6c) (>30 %), iso-C15:0 (>20 %) and iso-C17:0 3-OH (>10 %). Based on the variability of phylogenetic and phenotypic characteristics, strain 3-0-1T represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium yamdrokense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 3-0-1T (=JCM 19397T = CGMCC 1.12560T).