THE ILLUMINATOR

Tibetan-English
Encyclopaedic Dictionary

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གྲལ་
Transliteration: gral
I. A basic intertsheg of the Tibetan language with the general sense of row of things, a group of things lined up in a row. It is combined with various other མིང་ grammatical names or ཚིག་ཕྲད་ connectors to give words that contain its meaning e.g., གྲལ་སྟར་ and དལ་པོ་ q.v.
II. <noun> "Sitting row". In Buddhist monasteries and practice centres, participants in ceremonies are seated in rows. T…
བཞིན་
Transliteration: bzhin
I. <noun> "Face", "visage", "countenance", "appearance", "likeness" and in some cases, "image". Meaning the surface or face that something presents to the world.
II. <ཚིག་གྲོགས་ phrase assistive> Added after a main verb to show the present, continuous tense (called the progressive tense in some American grammar books). E.g., འགྲོ་བཞིན་འགྲོ་བཞིན་ "(the actual process of) walking"; གསུང་…
ཅན་
Transliteration: can
I. <adj> Indicating the meaning of the "presence of" someone. E.g., [TC] ཁོའི་ཅན་དུ་འགྲོ་བ། "went to his side / before him / to him". The meaning must be translated on context.
II. <ཚིག་ཕྲད་ phrase connector> In grammar, this connector is described as having two similar meanings. 1) Showing possession. E.g., ལག་པ་ཅན་ means "having hands". In this usage it produces an adjectival phrase.…
ལོ་གྲག་ཟེར་གསུམ་
Transliteration: lo grag zer gsum
This is a set of three terms classified as ཚིག་ཕྲད་ phrase linkers but functioning more as verbs. The three terms are ལོ་, གྲག་ (also seen as གྲགས་) and ཟེར་ q.v. All have the basic sense of "say". They are placed after the description of an event or after some statement that has been made to report that event or statement. However, they convey a sense of dissatisfaction on the part of the person…
ཀྱེ་
Transliteration: kye
<ཚིག་ཕྲད་ phrase connector> One of a group of several grammatical connectors used to show the eighth case, "term of calling" འབོད་པའི་སྒྲ་ q.v. for more.
Note that term is a contraction of ཀྭ་ཡེ་ with exactly the same meaning. See also the [Old] form of the term ཀྭ་ q.v.
This connector is used in cases where the party being called out to (or hailed, saluted, or addressed) is higher than calle…
འབྲལ་བ་
Transliteration: 'bral ba
<verb> v.i. བྲལ་བ་/ འབྲལ་བ་/ འབྲལ་བ་//. Transitive form is ཕྲལ་བ་ q.v. For the connection between things to be lost and for them to become apart in the sense of being disjunct, disconnected. 1) "To separate from", "to part", hence also in some cases "to leave". E.g., [TC] འགྲོགས་པའི་ཐ་མ་འབྲལ་བ་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཡིན། "the final separation from conjunction is dharmatā"; གྲོགས་པོ་ཁ་འབྲལ་མི་ཕོད་པ། "it is…
སྤྱི་
Transliteration: spyi
I. A basic intertsheg of the language with the basic meaning "topmost position". Derived from that is the sense of things seen in general, "overall" or "overview" as opposed to particular things and details. Derived from that is the sense of the general public as opposed to private. The term is combined with various other མིང་ grammatical names or ཚིག་ཕྲད་ connectors to give words that contain it…
ཁང་
Transliteration: khang
A basic intertsheg of the Tibetan language with the general sense of a "housing" of some sort. It is etymologically related to ཁུང་ an empty space within something else that could contain something. It refers to a building or part of a building that houses people, things, or a specific activity. It is combined with various other མིང་ grammatical names or ཚིག་ཕྲད་ connectors to give words that con…
སྒྲ་སྦྱོར་
Transliteration: sgra sbyor
<noun> See under སྡེབ་སྦྱོར་ for a discussion that clarifies the meaning. In brief, "སྦྱོར་བ་ the art / study of putting together the སྒྲ་ terms of a language". This study is one of the sub-topics of grammar. It refers specifically to: i) the correct spelling of སྒྲ་ the terms of the language from the letters of the language and ii) the correct usage of those terms according the grammar of …
ལས་
Transliteration: las
I. <noun> Translation of the Sanskrit "karma" which is derived from the Sanskrit verb "kṛt" "to do" and meaning "having the nature of doing", "involvement with action".
1) This is an exceptionally important term in Buddhism. The Buddha used it to explain how an afflicted mind produces further experiences of deluded existence again in the future. Roughly speaking it is defined as the སེམས་པ་ …
གཞན་དབང་
Transliteration: gzhan dbang
I. <adj><noun> One of a pair of terms; its counterpart is རང་དབང་ q.v. for meaning. The term གཞན་དབང་ is defined as རང་དབང་མིན་པ་"not independent" i.e., governed / controlled / affected by other things and also རང་དབང་མེད་པ་ "without self-control" i.e., unable to remain unaffected by other things. The pair of terms are often translated as གཞན་དབང་ "dependent" and རང་དབང་ "independent"…
རྣམ་དབྱེ་
Transliteration: rnam dbye
I. <noun> "Case". Grammar term. This is the term that corresponds to the term "case" of English grammar. It is definitely not "declension" as some have translated it. Tibetan grammar has རྣམ་དབྱེ་བརྒྱད་ "eight cases" (occasionally only རྣམ་དབྱེ་བདུན་ seven are mentioned) q.v.
The word "case" in Tibetan grammar is used slightly differently than in English. In English, a case is the name of a …
ཀྱི་
Transliteration: kyi
I. <ཚིག་ཕྲད་ phrase connector><case connector> One of the group of five connectors ཀྱི་, གི་, གྱི་, འི་, and ཡི་ that have case function. These connectors are used to indicate the sixth Tibetan case called འབྲེལ་བ་ "connection". When any of them are in actual use as a connector that shows this case function, they are called འབྲེལ་བའི་སྒྲ་ "connective terms" q.v.
Placement: The connecto…

ཐ་
Transliteration: tha
I. <consonant letter> The tenth of the གསལ་བྱེད་སུམ་ཅུ་ thirty consonants of the Tibetan language. 1) The enunciation of the consonant is defined as having: སྐྱེ་གནས་ place of production = the teeth; བྱེད་པ་ producer = ལྕེ་རྩེ་ the tip of the tongue; ནང་གི་རྩོལ་བ་ inner effort = opened larynx; and ཕྱིའི་རྩོལ་བ་ outer effort = aspirated and un-sounded. 2) When used as a མིང་གཞི་ name-base, t…
གོ་
Transliteration: go
I. A basic intertsheg of the Tibetan language with the connotations སྐབས་ "particular circumstance", མཚམས་ "boundary", and གནས་ "place", "room", "space", "situation", "level". It is combined with a wide variety of other མིང་ grammatical names, usually following it, to give a range of meanings. E.g., the following roughly correspond to the three connotations given for it: གོ་སྐབས་ "opportunity"; ག…
སླར་བསྡུ་བ་
Transliteration: slar bsdu ba
I. <verb> v.t. see བསྡུ་བ་ for tense forms. "To retract". Lit. "to draw back in again" after something has been emanated or sent out. 1) It is used primarily in secret mantra to indicate a phase that comes at the end of every production of a deity in deity meditation. The deity is emanated, sent out, from the source, emptiness, and at the end is drawn back in again. Thus, although it has be…
ལམ་
Transliteration: lam
I. <noun> 1) A place for travelling both material and abstract, i.e., "path", "way", "road", "street", etc. This includes the meaning of "path" common in Buddhist usage, translating the Sanskrit "mārga". 2) Method or way of doing something, like ལུགས་. I.e., an "-ology". E.g., རིགས་ལམ་ lit. "path of reasoning" meaning "logic". 3) System or established way e.g., རྙིང་ལམ་ "old way" or "early …
ལྷག་བཅས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་
Transliteration: lhag bcas kyi sgra
<phrase> "Continuative term(s)". The name given to a group of three ཚིག་ཕྲད་ connectors in Tibetan grammar or to one or more members of the group. There are three connectors in the group because the connectors are ཕྲད་གཞན་དབང་ཅན་ dependent connectors i.e., they all have the same grammatical meaning but the correct one needs to be used according to the ending of the preceding word. The three…
རོ་
Transliteration: ro
I. <noun> A. "Taste". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "rasaḥ". Taste is defined in the Abhidharma as that which is the ལྕེའི་ཡུལ་ object of the tongue. In other words, it specifically means the ཡུལ་ object known by the ལྕེའི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ ear consciousness through the ལྕེའི་དབང་པོ་ ear sense-power. In the Abhidharma, taste is described as having six individual components; see རོ་དྲུག་ "si…
རྐང་པ་ཁ་སྐོང་གི་ཡི་གེ་
Transliteration: rkang pa kha skong gi yi ge
<noun> "Verse-filler", "verse-filling letter" / "verse padder", "verse-padding letter". More literally, "line-filling letter", etc. Grammar term. The name given to a letter functioning as a ཚིག་ཕྲད་ phrase connector which is additionally functioning ཁ་སྐོང་ to fill, i.e., pad, a རྐང་པ་ line of ཚིགས་བཅད་ verse.
Tibetan poetry is made by constructing a series of lines of prose with each line h…
ཅེས་
Transliteration: ces
<ཚིག་ཕྲད་ phrase connector> One of a group of two connectors ཅེས་ and ཞེས་. Note: normally this would be a three-membered group with the third member ཤེས་ being used after ending letter ས་ but grammar texts explain that this would conflict with the meaning of ཤེས་པ་ so the third term is dropped and its usage given to ཞེས་ instead.
Placement: The group are ཕྲད་གཞན་དབང་ཅན་ dependent connectors…

བཅས་པ་
Transliteration: bcas pa
I. <verb> Past of v.t. and v.i. འཆའ་བ་ [TC].
II. <possessive indicator> A very common and important usage is that when this term is connected with a noun, it makes the noun something that is possessed by, had by, associated with something else. Note the "associated with" possibility; this is actually the sense most freq. intended. E.g. ལྟ་བ་གཉིས་ཡོད་དེ་ལྟ་བ་རྩོལ་བ་དང་བཅས་པ་། ལྟ་བ་རྩོལ་…
ཞེ་
Transliteration: zhe
I. <noun> 1) Acc. [ULS] this term was revised during the སྐད་གསར་བཅད་ language revisions and meant, when written in new signs, སེམས་ q.v. It has the meaning of that part of the thinking mind where one conducts one thoughts, harbours thoughts, thinks about things. E.g., in ཞེ་སྡང་ lit. "the hostile mind" but meaning "aggression / anger". 2) Same meaning as རིགས་ "class", "family".
II. <ཚིག…
ཟེར་
Transliteration: zer
I. <verb> Part of ཟེར་བ་ q.v.
II. <noun> 1) "Ray", "beam" of the light or radiation given off by any radiant body. Usually combined with other མིང་ grammatical names to give new words. E.g., འོད་ཟེར་ "light rays/light beams"; ཉི་ཟེར་ "sunrays/sunbeams"; ཟླ་ཟེར་ "moon beams"; ཆུ་ཟེར་ "light rays reflected from water"; ཚ་ཟེར་ "heat rays". 2) Abbrev. of འོད་ཟེར་ e.g., [KCD] མེ་དུད་ཟེར་ "f…
གྲྭ་
Transliteration: grva
A basic intertsheg of the Tibetan language with the general sense of a particular place where a particular group is housed. It is mainly seen in combination with various other མིང་ grammatical names or ཚིག་ཕྲད་ connectors to give words that contain its meaning as seen below.
1) "Section", "department" within an institution where some particular type of work is done. E.g., used in the names of gove…