ཕེབས་པར་དགའ་བསུ་ཞུ།
phebs par dga' bsu zhu
The Tibetan phrase for "welcome" is ཕེབས་པར་དགའ་བསུ་ཞུ། (phebs par dga' bsu zhu).
This phrase is used as a greeting when someone arrives.
Meaning: greeting given upon someone's arrival (intj)
What does it mean word for word?
The expression is composed of ཕེབས་ (honorific 'to come'), པར་ (particle indicating the act of coming), དགའ་བསུ་ (to welcome/greet with joy) and ཞུ། (honorific verb for 'to do/request'). The core concept of the welcome is དགའ་བསུ་, which combines དགའ་ (joy) and བསུ་ (to greet/receive).
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
ཕེབས་པར་དགའ་བསུ་ཞུ། is highly formal and uses honorific verbs, making it suitable for welcoming guests of high status or in formal settings.
How does it change in a sentence?
The core noun/verb for 'welcome' is དགའ་བསུ་ (dga' bsu), which literally combines 'joy' (དགའ་) and 'to greet/receive' (བསུ་).
How do you pronounce it?
phebs par dga' bsu zhu
Did you know?
- In Tibetan culture, a true welcome is often expressed through food rather than words alone. To welcome someone is to offer 'khata', a ceremonial white silk scarf, which symbolizes purity and auspiciousness.
- Because the phrase uses the honorific verb ཕེབས་, you must be careful not to use it for yourself. In Tibetan, using honorifics for one's own actions is considered grammatically incorrect and socially inappropriate.
- Tibetan has several levels of honorifics, meaning there are different words for 'welcome' depending on whether the guest is a peer, a teacher or a high lama.
Examples in context
- དགོན་པ་ལ་ཕེབས་པར་དགའ་བསུ་ཞུ།dgon pa la phebs par dga' bsu zhu.Welcome to the monastery.
Example conversation
Norbu welcomes Tseringmo to his office.
- ནོར་བུ། Norbuཚེ་རིང་མོ། ཕེབས་པར་དགའ་བསུ་ཞུ།Tseringmo, pheb par ga su zhuTseringmo, welcome!
- ཚེ་རིང་མོ། Tseringmoཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ།thuk je cheThank you.
- ནོར་བུ། Norbuནང་ལ་འཛུལ་གནང་།nang la dzul nangPlease come inside.
- ཚེ་རིང་མོ། Tseringmoའོ་ན་ལགས་སོ།o na lak soOkay, I will.
