Tibet

:This article is on historic Tibet. "Tibet" can also refer to the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Name

The English word Tibet, like the word for Tibet in most European languages, ultimately derives (via Arabic and Persian) from a Turkic word Tüböd (pl. Tübön) meaning "the heights". (Behr, W. Oriens 34 (1994): 557-564.) The Middle Chinese word for Tibet, tufan has the same origin.

Related Topics:
Arabic - Persian - Middle Chinese

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Tibetans call their homeland Bod (????), pronounced pö in Lhasa dialect. It is first attested in the geography of Ptolemy as βαται (batai) and in Chinese texts as fa (Beckwith, C. U. of Indiana Diss. 1977). They refer to a fatherland, rather than a motherland as does India.

Related Topics:
Ptolemy - Fatherland - Motherland

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The Chinese name for Tibet, ?? (X?zàng), is a phonetic transliteration derived from Tsang (western Ü-Tsang), in use since the 18th century. The Chinese character ? (zàng) is also used to describe Tibetan things such as the Tibetan language (??, zàng wén) and the Tibetan people (??, zàng zú). The two characters of X?zàng can literally mean "western storehouse", which some Tibetans find offensive. However, the offending character, "zàng", can also mean "treasure" or "Buddhist scripture". In addition, Chinese transliterations of non-Chinese names do not necessarily take into account the literal meanings of words; usually a positive or neutral connotation combined with phonetic similarity is enough for the transliteration to come into use.

Related Topics:
X?zàng - Tsang - Ü-Tsang - 18th century - Tibetan language - Tibetan people

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