Common Tibetan proverbs and figurative idioms with their meanings explained, for an upper-level learner. Front: the Tibetan idiom. Back: English meaning and usage note.
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- བཟང་པོ་བཏབ་ན་བཟང་པོ་སྨིན། ངན་པ་བཏབ་ན་ངན་པ་སྨིན། (Zangpo tabna zangpo min, ngenpa tabna ngenpa min)
- Sow good and you reap good, sow bad and you reap bad, meaning your actions determine your results.
- རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་ཆུ་བཏུང་ན་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་ཁྲིམས་ལ་བརྩི་དགོས། (Gyalkhab kyi chu tungna gyalkhab kyi trim la tsi go)
- Having drunk the country's water, one should obey the country's laws, meaning respect the customs of wherever you live.
- ནང་མི་ལོང་ན་ལྷ་ལ་བསྟེན། ལྟོགས་ན་རྐུན་མའི་བསམ་བློ (Nangmi longna lha la ten, tokna künmai samlo)
- One who has had enough to eat thinks of serving God, the hungry think of stealing, meaning comfort turns the mind to higher things while need turns it to desperation.
- ཟས་ཚད་བཞིན་ཟོ། གོམ་པ་ཚད་བཞིན་སྤོ། (Se tsezhin zo, gompa tsezhin po)
- Eat according to the limits of your provisions, walk according to the length of your step, meaning live within your means.
- སང་ཉིན་ཤི་ན་ཡང་དེ་རིང་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད། (Sang nyin shina yang dering lobjong che)
- Even if I know I will die tomorrow, I can still learn something tonight, praising lifelong learning.
- བླུན་པོས་ཀྱང་ཨང་ཟེར་ཐུབ། ཤེས་རབ་ཡོད་ན་ཡིན་ཟེར་ཐུབ། (Lünpö kyang ang zer thub, sherap yöna yin zer thub)
- Any fool can say "ah," but you need intelligence to say "yes," meaning true agreement requires understanding.
- ཀུན་སྤྱོད་ཐུན་མོང་མིན་པའི་ཡུལ་ལ་ཐུན་མོང་གི་ཚུལ་གྱིས་འཚོ། (Küncho thünmong minpai yul la thünmong gi tsül gyi tso)
- The highest art is living an ordinary life in an extraordinary manner, valuing quiet mastery over show.
- སེམས་ལྷོད་པོ (Sem lhöpo)
- A relaxed heart, meaning someone who is calm, easygoing, and not easily upset.
- སྙིང་སྟོབས་ཆེན་པོ (Nyingtob chenpo)
- Great heart-strength, meaning great courage or bravery.
- སེམས་ཁོང་ནས་བྱུང་བ (Sem khongne chungwa)
- Coming from deep within the heart, meaning something said or felt with complete sincerity.
- མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བ་ཙམ་གྱིས་མི་འགྲིག (Mikgi tongwa tsamgyi mi drik)
- Seeing with the eyes alone is not enough, a caution against judging only by appearances.
- ཀླུང་ཆེན་པོ་ཡང་ཆུ་ཐིགས་ལས་གྲུབ། (Lungchenpo yang chutik le drup)
- Even a great river is made from drops of water, meaning big achievements are built from small steps.
- རི་བོ་མཐོན་པོ་ཡང་གོམ་པ་གཅིག་གིས་མི་འགྲིལ། (Riwo tönpo yang gompa chikgi mi dril)
- Even a high mountain is not climbed in a single step, meaning great goals take steady, patient effort.
- ཆུ་མིག་ཆུང་ངུ་ལས་ཆུ་བོ་ཆེན་པོ་འབྱུང་། (Chumik chungngu le chuwo chenpo jung)
- A great river arises from a small spring, meaning small beginnings can grow into great things.
- རྟ་མགྱོགས་པོ་ལ་ལྕག་མི་དགོས། (Ta gyokpo la chak migö)
- A fast horse doesn't need the whip, meaning a capable person doesn't need to be pushed to do well.
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