སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས།
nga dro de lek
To say good morning in Tibetan when you see someone for the first time in the morning, say སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། (nga dro de lek).
སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། is the morning greeting, used when you first meet someone in the morning.
Meaning: when seeing someone for the first time in the morning (intj)
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is made of སྔ་དྲོ་ (nga dro), meaning early morning and བདེ་ལེགས (de lek), meaning good or well.
How do you pronounce it?
སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། is said nga dro de lek.
When do people say it?
When greeting someone in Tibetan culture, it is respectful to join your palms in front of your chest and slightly bow your head.
Did you know?
- In some Tibetan regions, the most common way to greet someone in the morning is to ask ཟ་is ཟ་བ་ ('Have you eaten?'), which functions as a gesture of affection rather than a literal question about food.
- Formal greetings in Tibetan culture may involve the presentation of a ཁ་ਤਾ (khata), a ceremonial white scarf symbolizing purity and respect.
- While སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས། is a direct translation of 'good morning', Tibetans frequently use the general greeting བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། (tashi delek) regardless of the time of day.
Example conversation
Two colleagues meet at the office entrance.
- ཆོས་སྒྲོན། Choesronབསྟན་འདུས། སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས།Tandan, nga dro be lekGood morning, Tandan.
- བསྟན་འདུས། Tenzinཆོས་སྒྲོན། སྔ་དྲོ་བདེ་ལེགས།Choesron, nga dro be lekGood morning, Choesron.
- ཆོས་སྒྲོན། Choesronཁྱེད་རང་སྐྱབས་ཀྱིས་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན་པས།khyed rang skyabs kyis be po yin pasAre you doing well?
- བསྟན་འདུས། Tenzinང་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན། ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ།nga be po yin, thuk je cheI am well. Thank you.
