THE ILLUMINATOR

Tibetan-English
Encyclopaedic Dictionary

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NATIVE TIBETAN DICTIONARIES
Tibetan culture created three major dictionaries in the twentieth century that were made to correspond to the style of a Western dictionary. Prior to that, Tibetans did not create or use many dictionaries and the few that were created before that time were usually word lists without alphabetic arrangement. These were not intended as reference works, rather, they were intended as items to be read …
DICTIONARY AND VERBS
1. The Spellings, Tense Forms, and Definitions of Verbs
Tibetan verb theory is complex in its own right. However, that complexity is compounded by spelling variations that existed in Tibet. And it is compounded even further by the fact that the bulk of Tibetan manuscripts were mostly prepared by scribes who were not great scholars and often did not know of the rules surrounding verbs and their spe…
གདུ་བ་
Transliteration: gdu ba
<verb> v.t. གདུས་པ་/ གདུ་བ་/ གདུ་བ་/ གདུས་/. 1) "To stew" meaning specifically to cook up the ingredients of a soup in order to make a thick soup or broth. This refers to a style of food that was and still is common in Asia. A meal is often a thick soup made from watery start with ingredients put into the water and boiled together till there is a very thick broth. Note that native Tibetan d…
TIBETAN SPELLING VARIATIONS
Tibetan language has a unique system for word construction. One of the effects of the system is that correct spellings are pre-determined by a complex set of rules. Thus, all spellings of the morphemes of the language were pre-determined at the time the rules were set down. As a result and unlike in English, new spellings cannot be created according to whim. This unique system and its effects are…
ཀ་དག་
Transliteration: ka dag
Abbrev. of ཀ་ནས་དག་པ་ q.v.
I. <adj> Meaning "pure from the ground up, pure from the beginning".
II. <noun> "Alpha purity". A unique རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion term meaning ཀ་ནས་དག་པ་ and referring to the purity that has been there in the essence of mind from the first, i.e., primordial purity. Here, the letter ཀ་ has the meaning གདོད་མ་ as is explained in the oral instructions of …
བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་
Transliteration: bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo
<noun> "Great Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary". The name of a very large dictionary compiled in the 1970's by Alak Zankar Rinpoche and his workers in co-operation with the Communist Chinese government. The dictionary is done in English style (in a book, in standard dictionary layout). Headwords are in Tibetan followed by a brief explanation in Tibetan with examples. Each section of Tibetan is fo…