How to Say “Happy Birthday” in Tibetan

By Jonathan Rodney • Updated October 1, 2026

སྐྱེས་སྐར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ།

kye-kar-la ta-shi de-lek shu

To say "happy birthday" in Tibetan, use སྐྱེས་སྐར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ། (kye-kar-la ta-shi de-lek shu).

སྐྱེས་སྐར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ། is used to express birthday wishes in a respectful or formal manner.

Meaning: good wishes for a birthday (intj)

What does it mean word for word?

The phrase literally means "to the birthday, [I] offer auspiciousness and well-being".

How does it change in a sentence?

The verb at the end, ཞུ། (shu), is the honorific form of "to say" or "to offer", which makes the entire expression polite.

How do you pronounce it?

kye-kar-la ta-shi de-lek shu

Did you know?

In traditional Tibetan culture, individual birthdays were not historically celebrated with cakes or parties. Instead, people often celebrate the Tibetan New Year, ལོ་གསར་ (lo sar), as a collective birthday for everyone.
The term སྐྱེས་སྐར་ (kye-kar) literally translates to 'birth star'.
When using this phrase, it is common to follow the verbal wish with the offering of a 'khata', a traditional white silk scarf.

Example conversation

Two friends are celebrating a birthday together.

དཀར་མོ། Karmo

རིནཅེན། སྐྱེས་སྐར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ།
Rinchen, kyes kar la tra shis bde legs zhu
Rinchen, happy birthday!
རིནཅེན། Rinchen

ཐུགས་ཆེ་ དཀར་མོ།
thugs che Karmo
Thank you, Karmo.
དཀར་མོ། Karmo

འདི་ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་གifts ཆུང་ཆུང་មួយརེད།
di khyed rang la gifts chung chung gyu red
This is a small gift for you.
རིནཅེན། Rinchen

བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་།
tra shis bde legs
Thank you very much!

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About The Author

Jonathan Rodney

Hello! I am Jonathan, a language enthusiast with a particular passion for Nepali. I enjoy guiding others through detailed and fun language guides, making learning languages as 'sweet' as 'chocolate' (चकलेट in Nepali)! When I am not teaching phrases like 'Are you okay?' (तिमीलाई ठिक छ? Timilai thik cha?) in Nepali, you might find me exploring culinary delights, contemplating 'bananas' (केरा, kera) and 'capsicums' (भेडे खुर्सानी, bhede khursani). I love 'mangos' (आफू, aapu) and 'curry leaves' (करी पत्ता, kari patta). I find fascination in everyday items just as much as the extraordinary, from 'coffee' (कफी, kafi) to 'cockroaches' (झinga, jhinga). My time with Himalayan languages also led me to Tibetan, and I now share guides on how to say words in Tibetan as well.

Jonathan RodneyHelp make this guide better. Spot a mistake, know another way to say it, or have an example from real life? Share it below.

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