How to say "Happy Birthday" to a tulku.

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arturopablo
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Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2017 11:05 pm

How to say "Happy Birthday" to a tulku.

Post by arturopablo »

Hi, my name is Pablo and I am part of a little Buddhist community in Guayaquil, Ecuador. We are making a video for the birthday of the Venerable Namkhai Norbu. My knowledge of Tibetan is very basic, I can barely read and can only make smalltalk. Only recently I am beginning to study proper grammar. I'm using this as a opportunity to learn more about Tibetan language.

Now, I want to learn how to say "Happy Birthday" to a Tulku in Tibetan. I tried several websites: The results are the following:

1. སྐྱེས་སྐར་ཉིན་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།
and
2. སྐྱེས་སྐར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ།

About the first one. I believe ཉིན means day, correct me if am wrong. I looked at my dictionary and it says སྐྱེས་སྐར means birthday. I'm confused as some people tell me that when addressing to a Tulku, the honorific is used and kye kar changes to thoong kar (not using Wylie, just phonetically) Can someone please explain this to me? Also, Why add ཉིན to སྐྱེས་སྐར if it already means birthday? How does one writes thoong in uchen?

About number 2, I don't understand the use the conjunction ལ in this case. Also, can someone explain me the difference in coloquial Tibetan between བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས and བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ?

I know this is a very large request. I would be happy if someone just told me how to say happy birthday to a tulku in both uchen and transliterated. :P But I would be very grateful if my other specific doubts were cleared, as this would be more helpful for my learning.

Thanks for helping me, I really want to keep learning Tibetan.
May all beings achieve enlightenment.
Malcolm
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Re: How to say "Happy Birthday" to a tulku.

Post by Malcolm »

arturopablo wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 12:00 am Hi, my name is Pablo and I am part of a little Buddhist community in Guayaquil, Ecuador. We are making a video for the birthday of the Venerable Namkhai Norbu. My knowledge of Tibetan is very basic, I can barely read and can only make smalltalk. Only recently I am beginning to study proper grammar. I'm using this as a opportunity to learn more about Tibetan language.
They don't say "happy birthday" in Tibetan at all.

They might say tashi deleks! though.
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conebeckham
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Re: How to say "Happy Birthday" to a tulku.

Post by conebeckham »

Trungkar Tashi Delek I think, or Kyekar Tashi Delek. But it is not culturally Tibetan, as Malcolm alludes....
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
arturopablo
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Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2017 11:05 pm

Re: How to say "Happy Birthday" to a tulku.

Post by arturopablo »

Hi, many thanks to you all for your answers.

I understand that saying "happy birthday" is not a Tibetan custom, and that the notion of celebrating a birthday in it's modern sense is mostly a Western thing. It's just a gesture my community is coordinating with other Dharma centers in my region. :smile:

I want to request a favor. Please conebeckham, can you give the Wylie or the Tibetan script for trung kar.

Again, many thanks.
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conebeckham
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Location: Bay Area, CA, USA

Re: How to say "Happy Birthday" to a tulku.

Post by conebeckham »

འཁྲུངས་སྐར་

That's honorific, which is what you want to use.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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Mantrik
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Re: How to say "Happy Birthday" to a tulku.

Post by Mantrik »

arturopablo wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 2:14 am Hi, many thanks to you all for your answers.

I understand that saying "happy birthday" is not a Tibetan custom, and that the notion of celebrating a birthday in it's modern sense is mostly a Western thing. It's just a gesture my community is coordinating with other Dharma centers in my region. :smile:

I want to request a favor. Please conebeckham, can you give the Wylie or the Tibetan script for trung kar.

Again, many thanks.
ChNN also has strong Italian cultural links so you may wish to add that greeting in Italian. He may find that pleasing. :)
http://www.khyung.com ཁྲོཾ

Om Thathpurushaya Vidhmahe
Suvarna Pakshaya Dheemahe
Thanno Garuda Prachodayath

Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)
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