Language and Culture

Tibetans have their own language, in both spoken and written forms. Tibetan people have produced vast collections of first class achievements in the areas of astronomy, medicine, literature, drama, painting, sculpture and architecture.

1. Language

Tibetans are friendly and humourous people. This introduction of Tibetan language may help you in setting up unforgettable relationship with Tibetan people.

Pronunciation
The vowel "a" must be pronounced like the "a" in father-soft and long, unless it appears as ay, in which cast it is pronounced as in say or day. Note that words beginning with either b or p, d or t and g or k are pronounced halfway between the normal pronunciation of these constant pairs (eg, b or p), and they are aspirated, like words starting with an h. A slash through a letter indicates the neural vowel sound uh.

Word Order
Simple Tibetan sentences are constructed as follows:
Subject --Object --Verb
The verb is always last.

Verb Tenses
Tibetan verbs are composed of two parts: the root, which carries the meaning of the verb, and the ending, which indicates the tense (past, present or future). The simplest and most common verb form, consisting of the root plus the ending-ge ray, can be used for the present and future tenses. The root is strongly accented in speech. In order to form the past tense, substitute the ending -song.

Only the verb roots are given in this glossary and please remember to add the appropriate endings.

2. Culture
Tibet's traditional culture is rich and diverse, and can be broadly divided into religious culture and folk culture. Religious culture consists of temple architecture, Buddhist sculpture, murals, and Thangka painting. A Thangka is a scrolled religious cloth painting or silk embroidery edged with brocade, and is a handicraft unique to Tibet. The emphasis within Thangka art is on color-coordination, brush strokes and scale of image. Specialized training is required in order to master this specialized Tibetan skill. All the large monasteries in Tibet are abundant in this artform and the Potala Palace has two 50-meter-long Thangkas, which are kept in a two-story warehouse. Giant Thangkas are displayed for worship for lamas and lay people during important festivals.
Folk culture covers folk story telling, singing and dancing. There are numerous popularly known Tibetan fables and mottoes, the most famous being the mottoes of Sakya and Kaldan. The best known work of Tibetan folk literature is the saga King Gesar, an epic of how King Gesar and his followers tried to rid people of evil. For Tibetan people King Gesar is the incarnation of justice, bravery, power and ideal.
Tibet is known as an "ocean of song and dance." Guoxie is a communal dance where the dancers perform in a circle, hand in hand. Duixie has been called Tibetan tap dancing. Guozhuang, a dance also perform in a circle, hand in hand. Duixie has been called Tibetan tap dancing. Guozhuang, a dance also performed in a circle, is popular in the farming, pastoral and forest areas in Tibet, and Guozhunag dance in Qamdo is the most famous of all. the ebullient Raba dance, on the other hand, is performed on squares, and its protagonists are highly skilled. The Qiangmu, danced by a sorcerer who goes off into a trance, is a religious dance performed to exorcise evil spirits.
Tibetan opera derives from sorcerer dancing, but it also has a plot, fixed vocal music, dancing, and a specialized performance mode.