Language/Tibetan/Vocabulary/How-to-Say-Hello-and-Greetings
Hello, aspiring Tibetan enthusiasts! 😃
Embark on an adventure into the core of Tibetan culture and learn to greet like a native! Welcome to the page devoted to "Tibetan Greetings". Tibetan is a captivating language spoken by millions in Tibet, China, and neighboring regions. It possesses a rich history and distinctive tonal characteristics that set it apart as a truly exceptional language. Whether you're planning a visit to Tibet, looking to connect with Tibetan friends or coworkers, or simply eager to learn a new language, mastering Tibetan "Greetings" is an excellent starting point.
Tibet is a land of spirituality, and many Tibetan greeting expressions are closely linked to Buddhism, which lies at the heart of Tibetan culture and traditions. Those who acquire these phrases and employ them appropriately will almost certainly receive a warm reception. A little effort in learning basic greetings can have a significant impact on local Tibetans, and consequently, on the quality of your experience in the country.
So, let's embark on your journey toward becoming a confident Tibetan speaker and dive into the culture! 🤗
- With the completion of this lesson, consider investigating these related pages: Education, Drinks, Clothes & Health.
Greetings[edit | edit source]
Main Greetings and Cultural Meaning[edit | edit source]
| Tibetan Greeting | Transliteration | Meaning in English | Cultural Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| བཀྲ་ཤིས་ | bkra-shis 'de-leg | Hello, Greetings, Good Wishes | "Tashi Delek" is one of the most common and well-known Tibetan greetings and is used as a polite and respectful form of address. It expresses good wishes and blessings for the person being greeted and is often used to start a conversation. |
| བདེ་ལེགས་ | bde-leg | Greetings, Hello | "Delek" is a less formal greeting used among friends, family and close acquaintances. It is used as a simple and casual way to say hello and show affection. |
| སྔགས་རྩིས་ | sngags-rtse | Peace, Health, Happiness | "Ngak Tsey" is a well-wishing greeting that expresses a desire for peace, health and happiness. It reflects the Tibetan value of cherishing the well-being of others and wishing them happiness in life. |
| རྒྱལ་པོའི་གསུམ་པ་ | rgyal-po'i gsum-pa | Royal Greeting | "Gyalo Pö Sum Pa" is a traditional greeting reserved for high-ranking officials, lamas and other distinguished individuals. It reflects the Tibetan reverence for hierarchy and the importance of showing respect for those in positions of authority. |
| འབྲི་གསུམ་ | 'bri-gsum | Health, Happiness, Prosperity | "Dri Sum" is a well-wishing greeting that expresses a desire for good health, happiness and prosperity. It reflects the Tibetan value of cherishing the well-being of others and wishing them success in life. |
| བཀྲས་ཏུ་གསུམ་ | bkras-tu gsum | Peace, Happiness | "Tso Sum" is a well-wishing greeting that expresses a desire for peace and happiness. It reflects the Tibetan desire for peace and happiness in life. |
Full Greetings List (English, Latin and Tibetan Script)[edit | edit source]
| English | Tibetan (latin script) | Tibetan (Tibetan script) |
|---|---|---|
| Hello (general greeting) | Tashi Delek | བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལགས།། |
| Hello (general greeting) | Kham-Sang | ཁམས་བཟང།། |
| informal greeting | demo | བདེ་མོ། |
| morning greeting | ngato delek | སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། |
| evening greeting | simja nango | གཟིམ་ལཇག་གནང་དགོས་། |
| how are you? | kayrang kusu debo yinbe | ཁྱེད་རང་སྐུ་གཇུགས་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན་པས། |
| I'm fine (reply to ཁྱེད་རང་སྐུ་གཇུགས་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན་པས།) | nga debo yin | ང་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན། |
| I’m not well | Nga debo Min dung? | ང་བདེ་པོ་མིན་འདུག།། |
| I come from (America) | Nga Ari nay yin | ང་ཨ་རེ་ནས་ཡིན། |
| What country are you from? | kayrang kanay yin nam? | ཁྱེད་རང་ག་ནས་ཡིམ། |
| Thank you | thuk-je-che | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་། |
| Sorry | gong-da | དགོང་དག་། |
| No problem | Gye nang-Kyi Mare | གལ་གནང་གི་མ་རེད་ |
| Can you speak English? | khye-rang yin-ji-kay gyab thub gi yo pe? | |
| What is your name? | Khedrand ming Gangyin? | ཁྱེད་རང་གི་མིང་གང་ཡིན། |
| My name is __ | Ngai ming ___ yin. | ངའི་མིང་ལ་ ... རེད། |
| Long time no see | yün-ring je-kyu ma-joong | ཡུན་རིང་འཇལ་རྒྱུ་མ་བྱུང་། |
| What's your name? (Honorific) | khyerang gi tshen la ga re shu gi yö | ཁྱེད་རང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ག་རེ་ཞུ་གི་ཡོད། |
| My name is ... | ngay minglâ ... ray | ངའི་མིང་ལ་ ... རེད། |
| Where are you from? | kayrang lungbâ kanay yin? | ཁྱེད་རང་ལུང་པ་ག་ནས་ཡིམ། |
| I'm from ... | nga ... nay yin | ང་ ... ནས་ཡིན། |
| Pleased to meet you | kayrang jel-pa gawpo chung | ཁྱེད་རང་མཇལ་པ་དགའ་པོ་བྱུང་ |
| Goodbye (said by person leaving) | kha-leh phe | ག་ལེར་ཕེབས་། |
| Goodbye (said by person staying) | kha-leh shu | ག་ལེར་བཞུགས་། |
| it's time to go | ta do-ran-sha | ད་འགྲོ་རན་ཤག། |
| we had a good time | nga-tso kyipo chung | ང་ཚོ་སྐྱིད་པོ་བྱུང་། |
| see you tomorrow | sânyi jay-yong | སང་ཉིན་མཇལ་ཡོང་། |
| see you later | jema jay-yong | རྗེས་མ་མཇལ་ཡོང་། |
| Goodbye | yâng-kya pheb-ro-ah | ཡང་སྐྱར་ཕེབས་རོགས་ཨ། |
| please come again | yâng-kya pheb-ro-nang | ཡང་སྐྱར་ཕེབས་རོགས་གནང། |
| Good luck! | cha-wa lam-to yong-bar-shok | བྱ་བ་ལམ་འགྲོ་ཡོང་བར་ཤོག |
| Cheers! Good Health! (Toasts used when drinking) | suk-bo de-thang | གཟུགས་པོ་བདེ་ཐང་། |
| Have a nice day | nyinmo delek | ཉིན་མོ་བདེ་ལེགས། |
| Enjoy your meal | shelak nyebo nang-rok | ཞལ་ལག་ཉེས་པོ་གནང་རོགས། |
| Have a good journey | tül-shü de bar shok | འགྲུལ་བཞུད་བདེ་བར་ཤོག |
| New Year greetings | Losar La Tashi Delek | ༄༅།།ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ། |
| Easter greetings | yi-shu kyar-sö dü-chen-la ta-shi de-lek shu | ཡི་ཤུ་བསྐྱར་གསོའི་དུས་ཆེན་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ། |
| Birthday greetings | kye-kar-la ta-shi de-lek shu | སྐྱེས་སྐར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ། |
Videos[edit | edit source]
Tibetan New Year's Greetings from the Dalai Lama[edit | edit source]
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Greetings for the Tibetan New Year (Losar) on March 3, 2022.
Learn Tibetan: Greetings Part 01[edit | edit source]
Learn Tibetan: Greetings Part 02[edit | edit source]
Learn Tibetan: Greetings Part 03[edit | edit source]
Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Tibetan Greetings[edit | edit source]
Now that you've learned about Tibetan greetings, it's time to test your understanding. See if you can answer these questions correctly:
1. What does "bkra-shis 'de-leg" (བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལགས།།) mean in English?
a) Goodbye b) Hello, Greetings, Good Wishes c) Thank you
2. Which greeting is used among friends and close acquaintances?
a) "rgyal-po'i gsum-pa" (རྒྱལ་པོའི་གསུམ་པ་) b) "bde-leg" (བདེ་ལེགས་) c) "sngags-rtse" (སྔགས་རྩིས་)
3. How do you say "Goodbye" in Tibetan when you are the person staying?
a) "kha-leh shu" (ག་ལེར་བཞུགས་།) b) "kha-leh phe" (ག་ལེར་ཕེབས་།) c) "yâng-kya pheb-ro-ah" (ཡང་སྐྱར་ཕེབས་རོགས་ཨ།)
4. What is the traditional greeting reserved for high-ranking officials?
a) "bkras-tu gsum" (བཀྲས་ཏུ་གསུམ་) b) "rgyal-po'i gsum-pa" (རྒྱལ་པོའི་གསུམ་པ་) c) "Tashi Delek" (བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལགས།།)
5. Which greeting expresses a desire for peace and happiness?
a) "sngags-rtse" (སྔགས་རྩིས་) b) "bkras-tu gsum" (བཀྲས་ཏུ་གསུམ་) c) "Tashi Delek" (བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལགས།།)
Answers to the Quiz[edit | edit source]
1. b) Hello, Greetings, Good Wishes 2. b) "bde-leg" (བདེ་ལེགས་) 3. a) "kha-leh shu" (ག་ལེར་བཞུགས་།) 4. b) "rgyal-po'i gsum-pa" (རྒྱལ་པོའི་གསུམ་པ་) 5. b) "bkras-tu gsum" (བཀྲས་ཏུ་གསུམ་)
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