Dialogue  October-December, 2012, Volume 14 No. 2

* Dr. Tashi Tsering, Snr. Asstt. Professor, HoD, Tibetan Language and Literature, CUTS, Sarnth,Varansi.

For instance, Dharam in Sanskrit, the direct translation would be Zinpa which means to uphold. It can be seen that the meaning in this case, becomes more obscure. So the Tibetan Lotsawa (translator) preferred to translate Chos to Zinpa, which means the state of change, that the mind undergoes and this is taken to have a direct appeal and understanding for the common people.

Generally, there could be many objectives of learning the Tibetan language, but if one’s objective is to have access to a large corpus of Tibetan literary output, learning the colloquial language alone will not suffice and serve the purpose. The reason can be easily understood by looking at the native Tibetan people who have no problem of speaking Tibetan, but when it comes to comprehending literary language, they face almost the same problem as that of a non-Tibetan speaking person. Therefore, those who are interested in learning the language must understand the duality of its nature, and I strongly feel that a clear distinction must be drawn between these two skills i.e., the Yigked or the literary language and the Khaked or the spoken language of Tibet.

There are some important factors which make the literary language not possible for comprehension by the general people. To sum up the issue precisely the following factors are required to be kept in mind.

Firstly, technical terms of philosophy which are mostly used in Kagyur and Tengyur, for instance, the meaning of the term Gogpa (cessation) cannot be taken as a literary meaning of Gagpa (negation).

Secondly, the exorbitant use of Ngonjod or synonyms make the meaning very obscure. But in classical poetry, it is used to be considered as a backbone for composing poetry.

Thirdly, DaNying or the archaic words are no longer in use today in spoken language, but are very much prevalent in the old texts.

Fourthly, the literary style of writing comes under the purview of Debjor or Chand which constitutes the formal way of writing. It mainly refers to complex sentences and often use of particles.

Sixthly, there are many terms which may not fall under the category of archaic words, but they are generally not used in the spoken language. For instance, Di ni dag gi chungma wo (this is my wife) is a form of expression which is widely used in the written form but not in the spoken language.

So, those who are very serious in learning Tibetan language should devote, at least, a part of their time to the above-mentioned points which would pave the way for understanding of a large corpus of Tibetan literary creations. It is very certain that by simply learning the colloquial language of Tibet shall not lead to any access to the Tibetan Sungbum and, for that matter to the Kagyur and the Tengyur also.

The second major category of Tibetan language is called Khaked or the spoken language which has a vast range of dialects coming under this domain. There is another word very similar to Khaked called Falked. Broadly speaking, a distinction may be made between these two terms also. The first one means the spoken language, and the second one means the spoken language of the ordinary people. The main criterion of difference between these is whether there is a marked usage of honorific words in them or not. Thus, dialect of Utsang (central Tibet) may be presumed as Khaked because of its extensive use of honorific words.

Hence, the Falked is like a local language which does not bother to use honorific words barring a few words here and there. Thus it is considered a straightforward way of expression which are adopted in the provinces of Kham, Amdo and many other parts of Tibet. Therefore, such dialects are innumerable in Tibet and hence the saying goes, beyond every higher pass there is a region, that has a different local dialect. If I am not mistaken, the same concept applies to the hill areas of the Indian border like, Ladakh and Khunu. The language used in these places is now known as the Bhoti languge, perhaps for reasons of political affiliation. Whether it is Yigked or Khaked or Falked or Bhoti, the basic sentence structure is exactly the same as the classical language of Tibet, which is again different from English. It is basically like S+O+V or Subject(S) followed by Object(O) followed by Verb(O) whereas in English, it is S+V+O. Again, in Tibetan, unlike Hindi, figures follow the noun e.g. we say Mi gu for nine men where Mi means Man and Gu means nine, or literally ‘Men nine’. Very often non-Tibetans get confused with this structure. But these days, many people from the younger generation of the Himalayan regions, who have an exposure to foreign languages, sometimes tend to use the noun followed by figures. For instance, Chig Ja, which literally means ‘one tea’. This is an incorrect structure in Tibetan and a clear sign of a starting degeneration from the original language.

Having emphasised the importance of learning classical language, I am not at all demeaning the importance of learning Falked. If we look at these dialects closely, we find that it has both a positive point and a negative point. The negative side is that in due course of time, it has developed its own characteristic features which have become the main obstacle in understanding each other’s dialects. The positive aspect of the dialect is its affiliation to literary language. Many basic and root words can be found in the original scriptures. In other words, there are many words which we consider as archaic, are simply used in their day-to-day language.

Above all, this language is currently used, spoken and understood by large population in the border hill areas of Ladakh, Lahul-Spiti, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim and the other border regions of the eastern periphery of India. Therefore, it becomes one of the most indispensable instruments in reinforcing national integration in India.