ག་ལེ་ཕེབས
ga le phebs
In Tibetan, bye is expressed as ག་ལེ་ཕེབས (ga le phebs). Wiktionary also lists ག་ལེ་ཞུགས (ga le zhugs).
Meaning: short for goodbye (intj)
Ways to say it
| Tibetan | Romanization (Wiktionary) |
|---|---|
| ག་ལེ་ཕེབས | ga le phebs |
| ག་ལེ་ཞུགས | ga le zhugs |
The phrase is used as a parting wish, similar to 'go safely' or 'goodbye', rather than just a casual 'bye'.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase ག་ལེ་ཕེབས literally means 'go peacefully' or 'go easily'.
Which one should you use?
Use ག་ལེ་ཕེབས (ga le phebs) when speaking to someone of higher status or to show respect. The form ག་ལེ་ཞུགས is also a way to say goodbye.
How do you pronounce it?
ga le phebs
When do people say it?
Tashi delek (བཀྲིས་བདེ་ལེགས།) can be used as a farewell.
Did you know?
- Depending on the region, a farewell may be accompanied by a slight nod or the joining of palms, rather than a handshake or a wave, which can be seen as too abrupt.
- The term ག་ལེ་ used in these phrases can also be used as a command meaning 'slowly' or 'take your time' in other contexts.
- Depending on the social hierarchy, the verb used in these farewells changes to reflect the relative status of the speaker and the listener.
Example sentences for Tibetan are not verified yet.
Example conversation
Two friends are parting ways after a meeting.
- ཆོས་སྒྲོན། Choesronརིནཅེན། ད་ག་ལེ་ཕེབས།Rinchen, da ga le phebsRinchen, bye now!
- རིནཅེན། Rinchenག་ལེ་ཞུགས།ga le zhugsGoodbye (stay well)!
- ཆོས་སྒྲོན། Choesronཕོངས་པོ་རེད། ག་ལེ་ཕེབས།phongs po red, ga le phebsIt was nice seeing you, bye!
- རིནཅེན། Rinchenག་ལེ་ཕེབས།ga le phebsBye!
Sources
- Wiktionary, “bye” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
