How to Say “Namaste” in Tibetan

By Jonathan Rodney • Updated October 2, 2026

བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།

Tashi delek

The English phrase 'namaste' can be expressed in Tibetan as བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། (Tashi delek).

The standard Tibetan greeting is བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།. It is used to wish someone good fortune and well-being.

Meaning: a greeting (noun)

How do you pronounce it?

Tashi delek

Did you know?

In many Tibetan communities, saying བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། is often accompanied by a slight bow or pressing the palms together.
When greeting an elder or a high-ranking person, one might add the word རིན་པོ་ཆེ (Rinpoche) or other honorifics to the phrase to show deep respect.
Unlike English greetings that focus on 'how' a person is, this Tibetan phrase focuses on wishing 'good fortune' upon them.

Example conversation

Two friends meet on the street.

བསྟན་འདུས། Tenzin

ཆོས་སྒྲོན། བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།
Choedron, Tashi Delek
Choedron, hello.
ཆོས་སྒྲོན། Choesron

བསྟན་འདུས། བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།
Tenzin, Tashi Delek
Tenzin, hello.
བསྟན་འདུས། Tenzin

ཁྱེད་རང་སྐུ་གཟུགས་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན་པས།
Khye-rang ku-zug de-po yin-pay
Are you doing well?
ཆོས་སྒྲོན། Choesron

ང་བདེ་པོ་ཡིན། ཐུགས་ cheer ཆེ།
Nga de-po yin. Thuk-che
I am well. Thank you.

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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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