ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།
Losar la tashi delek
ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། (Losar la tashi delek) is the Tibetan phrase for Happy New Year.
This phrase is specifically used for Losar, the Tibetan New Year, rather than the Gregorian New Year.
Meaning: Happy New Year (phrase)
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of lo (year), gsar (new), la (in/at/for) and tashi delek (auspicious blessings/good fortune).
How does it change in a sentence?
The particle ལ་ (la) functions as a dative or locative marker, meaning 'to' or 'in' the new year.
How do you pronounce it?
Losar la tashi delek
Did you know?
- In many Tibetan communities, the celebration of this new year is accompanied by the specific custom of eating 'guthuk', a ritual soup designed to drive away bad luck from the previous year.
- The phrase བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། is so powerful in Tibetan culture that it is often written on official documents or printed on banners to invite divine success and remove obstacles.
- The term བཀྲ་ཤིས་ (tashi) in the phrase does not just mean 'happy', but implies a state of being 'auspicious' or 'lucky' through divine or cosmic influence.
Example conversation
Two friends meet on the first day of the Tibetan New Year.
- དཀར་མོ། Karmoནོར་བུ། ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།Norbu, lo sar la tashi delek!Norbu, Happy New Year!
- ནོར་བུ། Norbuབཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། དཀར་མོ།Tashi delek, Karma!Best wishes, Karma!
- དཀར་མོ། Karmoཁྱེད་རང་གི་ལོ་གསར་ག་འདྲ་འདུགKhye-rang gi lo sar ga-dra du?How is your New Year going?
- ནོར་བུ། Norbuཡག་པོ་འདུག ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།Yag-po du. Lo sar la tashi delek!It is good. Happy New Year!
