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.
