ཕལ་སྐད།
The vernacular
phal kä · Wylie phal skad
Ordinary speech. What you would hear in a market.
21 · A little Tibetan
Enough to be a decent guest
Phrases, the signs on the doors, and the one thing about the language that changes what you are hearing.
This is not a language course and it will not teach you Tibetan. It is the handful of things that make the difference between a visitor who is a nuisance and one who is welcome, and one structural fact that is worth more than the whole vocabulary list.
Three warnings first, because most phrasebooks give none.
One. The phonetics below are for Lhasa Tibetan, the standard dialect. Tibetan has three branches, Central, Kham and Amdo. Amdo is the more conservative; Lhasa and Kham became tonal and lost the old initial consonant clusters. Somebody from Amdo may not recognise what you say.
Two. Written and spoken Tibetan have drifted enormously apart. The script beside each phrase is the real spelling, and it will not look like the sound. That is not an error in the transcription.
Three. Say it wrong anyway. Nobody at a monastery is grading you, and an attempted tashi delek lands better than a confident English hello.
The thing worth knowing
Tibetan has four registers, and a monastery uses two of them
This is the fact that reframes everything else on this page. Tibetan does not simply have polite forms the way English has could you instead of give me. It has a separate honorific vocabulary, different words for the same thing depending on who you are speaking to or about.
So when a monk speaks about his teacher he is not using a warmer tone. He is using different nouns and different verbs. And the scriptures are in a register of their own again, which is part of why reading them is a training rather than a skill you happen to have.
ཞེ་ས།
The honorific
zhe sa · Wylie zhe sa
A separate vocabulary for speaking to or about somebody senior. Not a politer tone: different words. Particularly prominent in Lhasa, and this is the register a monastery runs on.
ཡིག་སྐད།
The literary
yig kä · Wylie yig skad
The written style, which diverges sharply from anything spoken.
ཆོས་སྐད།
The religious
chö kä · Wylie chos skad
The style the scriptures are written in. This is the one a monk spends twenty years learning to read, and it is a reason the curriculum is as long as it is.
01
The one you actually need
If you learn nothing else, learn this. It is used as hello, as goodbye, as congratulations and as a greeting on any occasion at all, which no English word does.
Hello, and almost anything elsetwo sources
བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།
tashi delek
It does not mean ‘hello’. It is closer to auspiciousness and well-being, and it is said at arrivals, departures, new year and every good occasion.
02
Thank you, sorry, please
The ones that get you through most situations.
Thank you
ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་།
tujay-chay
Reply to thank you
ཞུ་དགོས་ཡག་ཡོད་ཡོད་མ་རེད།
shu-goyak yaw maray
Sorry
ཀོང་དགས་།
gong-da
Excuse me
དགོངས་དག བཟོད་དུ་གསོལ། ཐུགས་རྗེ་གཟིགས།
gong-da. sö du sö. thu-je-sik
Please
སྐུ་མཁྱེན
ku-chi
Yes
རེད།
Re
No
མ་རེད།
Ma re
Tibetan usually answers by repeating the verb ending of the question, affirmed or negated, rather than with yes or no on their own.
03
Arriving and leaving
Tibetan has separate goodbyes for the one who leaves and the one who stays.
Welcome
ཕེབས་པར་དགའ་བསུ་ཞུ།
heb-bar kaa-su-shu
Good morning
སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས།
nga-to delek
Good afternoon
ཕྱི་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས།
chito delek
Good evening
དགོང་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས།
gong-to de-lek
Good night
གཟིམ་ལཇག་གནང་དགོས་།
sim-jah nahng-go
Goodbye
ག་ལེར་ཕེབས་།
kha-leh phe
Literally closer to go slowly. The one staying says a different form.
How are you?
ཁྱེད་རང་སྐུ་གཇུགས་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན་པས།
kayrang kusu debo yimbay?
I am well
ང་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན།
nga debo yin
Pleased to meet you
ཁྱེད་རང་མཇལ་པ་དགའ་པོ་བྱུང་
kayrang jel-pa gawpo chung
What is your name?
ཁྱེད་རང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ག་རེ་ཞུ་གི་ཡོད།
kayrang gi minglâ karay ray?
Have a nice day
ཉིན་མོ་བདེ་ལེགས།
nyinmo delek
04
When you have no idea what is happening
Which, at a monastery, will be often. More useful than any amount of vocabulary.
I understand
ཧ་གོ་སོང་།
ha-ko song
I do not understand
ཧ་གོ་མ་སོང་།
ha ko-masong
Do you understand?
ཧ་གོ་སོང་ངས་།
ha-ko song ngay
Please speak more slowly
ད་དུང་ག་ལེར་ག་ལེར་གསུང་གནང་དང་།
tâtung kalay-kalay soong nâng dâng
Please say that again
དེ་ཡང་སྐྱར་གསུང་རོགས་གནང་།
te yâng-kyar soong rog nâng?
Please write it down
ཡིག་ཐོག་ཏུ་འགོད་རོགས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་གཟིགས།
yi thok tu kö rok thu-je-sik
Do you speak Tibetan?
ཁྱེད་རང་བོད་སྐད་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཡོད་པས།
kayrang phökay shing-giy yöbä?
Where is the toilet?
གསང་སྤྱོ་ག་པར་ཡོད་རེད།
sang-chö ka-bar yo-re
How much is this?
འདིར་གོང་ག་ཚད་རེད།
dir gong kâtsay ray?
Help!
རོགས་གནང་དང་།
rog nâng-da
05
Signs you will actually meet
Written on doors and walls, and the reason a phrasebook that only teaches speech leaves you stuck outside.
Entrance
འཇུག་སྒོ།
jug go
Exit
ཐོན་སྒོ།
thön go
Open
ཁ་ཕྱེ།
kha chad
Closed
ཁ་རྒྱག་པ།
kha gyabpa
Toilet
གསང་སྤྱོད།
sang chö
Forbidden
བྱེད་མ་ཆོག
je ma chog
Worth recognising before you walk through a door.
Shrine this way
མཆོད་མཇལ་ཡོད།
chö jel yö
One more thing
The syllable you will hear constantly
La (ལགས།) is attached to names, titles and answers as a marker of respect, the way -san works in Japanese. You will hear Geshe-la, Rinpoche-la, and your own name with it once people know you. It is not part of the name.
It costs nothing to add it when addressing anybody senior, and leaving it off is the most common thing visitors get slightly wrong.
Terms of address, what Geshe and Rinpoche actually mean, are on Titles and Ranks. If you are going, Visit covers the permit and the etiquette, and what happens at a teaching covers the rest. The nine mantras, which are Sanskrit rather than Tibetan, are on the mantras page.
Sources
References
Script and phonetics come from Omniglot, with Wikivoyage as an independent second reading. Eleven phrases are attested in both and are marked; the rest rest on one source, which the page says rather than implying more confidence than it has.
- 1Useful Tibetan phrasesOmniglot
Tibetan script and a phonetic reading for each phrase on the phrasebook page. Where Wikivoyage also carries a phrase, the two agree.
- 2Tibetan phrasebookWikivoyage
A second, independent reading for the common phrases, and the wording of the signs a visitor actually meets: open, closed, entrance, exit, toilet, forbidden, shrine this way.
- 3Standard TibetanWikipedia
The four registers of Lhasa Tibetan: phal skad the vernacular, zhe sa the honorific, yig skad the literary and chos skad the religious; and that Lhasa, Kham and Amdo are the three branches, with Amdo the more conservative and Lhasa and Kham tonal.
- 4The Gelug Monastic Education SystemStudy Buddhism
The five great treatises, the sequence of study, and the structure of the Geshe degree.
- 5About UsSera Jey Monastic University
The founding by Jetsun Kunkhen Lodrö Rinchen Senge, the two administrations, the Geshe Lharampa degree, the 75th abbot, and the affiliated centres abroad.
- 6Protected Area PermitBureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
PAP requirements for foreign nationals visiting the Bylakuppe, Mundgod and Hunsur settlements.
Every factual claim on this page rests on one of the sources above. Links open in a new tab. The full list for the whole site, and the standard this site holds itself to, is on the sources page.