Transliteration: lte ba
<noun> Meaning the central area around which everything revolves. Hence the central point of anything either abstractly or physically. 1) The "hub" or "nave" of a wheel or other circular device. See also རྩིབས་མ་ "spokes" and མུ་ཁྱུད་ "rim". 2) The "navel" itself or navel area of a human. For the navel in relation to other parts of the abdomen see གྲོད་པ་ "abdomen". i) The navel is one of རྣམ་ཤེས་འཕོ་བའི་བུ་ག་དགུ་ the nine orifices of the human body via which the consciousness exits at the time of death. ii) The "navel", one of the ལུས་ཀྱི་གནས་ལྔ་ "the five places in the body" of secret mantra practice. In this case it does not refer to the external navel but refers to the nexus of subtle channels (chakra) that exists at the navel level and is located internally near the spine. E.g., [GSB] ལྟེ་བ་མན་ཆད་དུ་འཇམ་རླུང་བཟུང་ལ། ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་རང་སྒོམས། "holding the gentle wind below the navel, meditate on Mahāmudrā". 3) The central part of anything, "the centre of town", "the hub of a village", ཡུལ་གྱི་ལྟེ་བ་ "the centre of a country".
