བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས
bkra shis bde legs/*bkra.ɕis.bde.leks/
In Tibetan, the phrase for hi is བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས (bkra shis bde legs).
While བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས is often used as a greeting equivalent to hi, it is more culturally aligned with expressions of good luck or blessings.
Meaning: friendly, informal greeting (intj)
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase literally translates to auspiciousness and well-being, combining the concepts of auspicious/good fortune and well-being.
How do you pronounce it?
The pronunciation is bkra shis bde legs (IPA: /*bkra.ɕis.bde.leks/). It consists of 4 syllables.
When do people say it?
When using this phrase, you are essentially offering auspicious blessings to the other person.
Did you know?
- Because བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས is essentially a blessing, using it is considered a way of generating positive karma for both the speaker and the listener.
- In Tibetan culture, the gesture of putting one's palms together in a prayer-like position often accompanies the greeting བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས.
- In many Tibetan communities, the concept of 'auspiciousness' contained in བཀྲ་ཤིས་ is often visualised through the 'Eight Auspicious Signs' used in art and decoration.
Example conversation
Two friends meet at a market.
- རིནཅེན། Rinchenབཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། ཆོས་སྒྲོན།Tashi Delek, Chödrön!Hi, Chödrön!
- ཆོས་སྒྲོན། Choesronབཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། རིནཅེན། ཁྱོད་ག་རེ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཡོད།Tashi Delek, Rinchen! Khyö ga re jé kyi yö?Hi, Rinchen! What are you doing?
- རིནཅེན། Rinchenང་འབྲས་བུ་འདི་ཚ་རེས་ཉོ་ཀྱི་ཡོད།Nga brey bu di tsha re nyö kyi yö.I am buying some fruit.
- ཆོས་སྒྲོན། Choesronཡག་པོ་འདུག ང་ཡང་ཉོ་འདོད་པ་ཡོད།Yag po dug, nga yang nyö dö pa yö.That is good, I want to buy some too.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
