Tibetan dictionaries?

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JigmeGyatso
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Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by JigmeGyatso »

Hi all,

I've been searching for a Tibetan dictionary, and I've narrowed it down to a few, but just wanted to know if anyone here has one that they'd recommend? Any input is most welcome!
tingdzin
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Re: Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by tingdzin »

Some of the online ditionaries are easiest to use. As to paper dictionaries (actually also true of online dictionaries), a lot can depend on what you're going to use it for. To take an obvious example, if you're working with Buddhist stuff, Goldstein is almost useless, but if you want colloquial or archaic usages, some of the Dharma dictionaries can be very misleading. Some of the Dharma dictionaries are also highly idiosyncratic, more interested in giving a particular person's take on the words than a useful explanation. What are you most interested in doing with the dictionary?
JigmeGyatso
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Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2017 11:37 pm
Location: Central Coast, Australia

Re: Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by JigmeGyatso »

Hi Tingdzin, I suppose I am looking for a dictionary specific for dharma terms and another for more colloquial, everyday use. But I'll comb the internet for online ones a bit more. Thank you!
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

If you know Wylie or have a Tibetan keyboard already installed and want to define a term you found, Christian Steinert's Tibetan Dictionary app is useful.
http://www.christian-steinert.de/home/b ... dictionary

If the option to switch between Tib-Tib, Tib-Eng, and Eng-Tib is more what you're looking for, the Mönlam Dictionary app by Ven. Lobsang Mönlam is for you.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... nary&hl=en

I have both of these on my Android phone, as well as the app for the Tibetan & Himalayan Library (a.k.a. THLib), which they call the Tibetan Translation Tool. You can find the online version here, or find it easily in Google Play: http://www.thlib.org/reference/dictiona ... nslate.php

If you have iPhone or iPad rather than an Android device, I highly recommend the free app by Phurba simply entitled Tibetan Dictionary. Its logo is simply three red book labelled ཀ་ ཁ་ and , respectively. Here's a direct link to it (though you can go through iTunes or the App Store, too): https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/tibetan ... 73951?mt=8

Note: The apps by Steinert, THLib, and Phurba are only Tib-Eng. Only Mönlam has the Tib-Tib and Eng-Tib options out of those mentioned above.

I could've sworn that Mönlam had a free PC dictionary as well, but as of this moment i can't find a link... There are other dictionaries for PC and Mac, but to my knowledge most of them aren't free, and some of them can be downright expensive. Perhaps those who've bought them can comment as to if they're worth it or not. These are entirely free to use. Mönlam is even open source.

Alternatively, you might try seeing what Tibetan Geeks has on offer. Looks like both PDFs and programs: https://www.tibetangeeks.com/downloads/dictionaries/

And last but certainly not least, the UMA Institute has a searchable PDF of a 902 page Tib-Skt-Eng dictionary by Jeffrey Hopkins for download here: http://uma-tibet.org/edu/gomang/gopub_dictionary.php

Enjoy!
Image

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
tingdzin
Posts: 1947
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2013 7:19 am

Re: Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by tingdzin »

Thanks Palzang! A lot of stuff here I didn't know about (but I'm rather a tech idiot).
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Apparently the dictionary by Phurba is finally available to Android users now, too.

:woohoo:
Image

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
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