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Learn Some Tibetan Words and Numbers

In Tibet, most people can't speak English but sometimes you may need to strike up a simple conversation with the locals such as a decent greeting during your trip. Learning some simple Tibetan words and numbers before your arrival will enable you to become more confident, closer to the Tibetan people, and have a deeper understanding of the local culture.

Here are some simple but practical Tibetan words and phrases:

Tibetan Pronunciation English Tibetan Words
Shokpa delek Good morning སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས།
Tashi Delek/ Kham-Sang Hello བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལགས།།/ ཁམས་བཟང།།
Thuk-je-che Thank you ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་།
Gong-pa Ma-sum Excuse me དགོངས་དག བཟོད་དུ་གསོལ། ཐུགས་རྗེ་གཟིགས།
gong-da Sorry དགོང་དག་།
kayrang kusu debo-yimbay How are you ཁྱེད་རང་སྐུ་གཇུགས་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན་པས།
Nga debo yin I'm fine ང་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན
Nga debo Min dung I'm not doing well ང་བདེ་པོ་མིན་འདུག།།
Ga-Pa Where ག་པར་
Ga-rey What ག་རེ་
Ga-Due When ག་དུས་
Gang-Day How གང་འདྲ་
Ga-rey Jey-ney Why ག་རེ་བྱས་ནས།
Yün-ring je-kyu ma-joong Long time no see ཡུན་རིང་འཇལ་རྒྱུ་མ་བྱུང་།
kayrang gi minglâ karay ray What is your name ཁྱེད་རང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ག་རེ་ཞུ་གི་ཡོད།
Dir gong kâtsay ray How much is this འདིར་གོང་ག་ཚད་རེད།
Sang-chö ka-bar yo-re Where is the toilet/bathroom གསང་སྤྱོ་ག་པར་ཡོད་རེད།
Rog nâng-da Help རོགས་གནང་དང་།
Kha-leh phe Goodbye
(said by people leaving)
ག་ལེར་ཕེབས་།
Kha-leh shu Goodbye
(said by people staying)
ག་ལེར་བཞུགས་།
Cha-wa lam-to yong-bar-shok Good luck བྱ་བ་ལམ་འགྲོ་ཡོང་བར་ཤོག
Chito delek Good afternoon ཕྱི་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས།
Gongmo delek Good evening དགོང་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས།

Below is a list of 1-20 numbers in Tibetan writing and pronunciation.

Numbers Tibetan Pronunciation Tibetan Number
1 chig
2 nyi
3 sum
4 shi
5 nga
6 thru'
7 tun
8 kyä
9 ku
10 chu ༡༠
11 cuci ༡༡
12 cunyi ༡༢
13 cuksum ༡༣
14 cupshi ༡༤
15 conga ༡༥
16 cutru ༡༦
17 cuptun ༡༧
18 copkya ༡༨
19 curku ༡༩
20 nyishu ༢༠

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