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46-616: Dolpo ( Standard Tibetan : དོལ་པོ ) is a high-altitude culturally Tibetan region in the upper part of the Dolpa District of western Nepal , bordered in the north by China . Part of the region lies in Shey Phoksundo National Park . The sparse, agro-pastoral population, known as Dolpo or Dolpopa in standard Tibetan and Dhol-wa in the local dialect, is connected to the rest of Nepal via Jufal airport, which can be reached in three days by horse. As

92-421: A Lhasa Tibetan syllable is relatively simple; no consonant cluster is allowed and codas are only allowed with a single consonant. Vowels can be either short or long, and long vowels may further be nasalized . Vowel harmony is observed in two syllable words as well as verbs with a finite ending. Also, tones are contrastive in this language, where at least two tonemes are distinguished. Although

138-717: A Tibetan grammar in Hindi . Some of his other works on Tibetan were: In much of Tibet, primary education is conducted either primarily or entirely in the Tibetan language, and bilingual education is rarely introduced before students reach middle school . However, Chinese is the language of instruction of most Tibetan secondary schools . In April 2020, classroom instruction was switched from Tibetan to Mandarin Chinese in Ngaba , Sichuan. Students who continue on to tertiary education have

184-719: A basic level with Lhasa Tibetan, while Amdo speakers cannot. Both Lhasa Tibetan and Khams Tibetan evolved to become tonal and do not preserve the word-initial consonant clusters , which makes them very far from Classical Tibetan , especially when compared to the more conservative Amdo Tibetan. Like many languages, Lhasa Tibetan has a variety of language registers : Tibetan is an ergative language , with what can loosely be termed subject–object–verb (SOV) word order . Grammatical constituents broadly have head-final word order: Tibetan nouns do not possess grammatical gender , although this may be marked lexically, nor do they inflect for number . However, definite human nouns may take

230-588: A collective or integral are often used after the tens, sometimes after a smaller number. In scientific and astrological works, the numerals, as in Vedic Sanskrit , are expressed by symbolical words. The written numerals are a variant of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system , forming a base-10 positional counting system that is attested early on in Classical Tibetan texts. Tibetan makes use of

276-594: A deliberate policy of extinguishing all that is Tibetan, including their own language in their own country" and he asserted a right for Tibetans to express themselves "in their mother tongue". However, Tibetologist Elliot Sperling has noted that "within certain limits the PRC does make efforts to accommodate Tibetan cultural expression" and "the cultural activity taking place all over the Tibetan plateau cannot be ignored." Some scholars also question such claims because most Tibetans continue to reside in rural areas where Chinese

322-415: A flat or rising-falling contour, the latter being a tone that rises to a medium level before falling again. It is normally safe to distinguish only between the two tones because there are very few minimal pairs that differ only because of contour. The difference occurs only in certain words ending in the sounds [m] or [ŋ]; for instance, the word kham ( Tibetan : ཁམ་ , "piece") is pronounced [kʰám] with

368-419: A form of umlaut in the Ü/Dbus branch of Central Tibetan . In some unusual cases, the vowels /a/ , /u/ , and /o/ may also be nasalised. The Lhasa dialect is usually described as having two tones: high and low. However, in monosyllabic words, each tone can occur with two distinct contours. The high tone can be pronounced with either a flat or a falling contour, and the low tone can be pronounced with either

414-470: A high flat tone, whereas the word Khams ( Tibetan : ཁམས་ , "the Kham region") is pronounced [kʰâm] with a high falling tone. In polysyllabic words, tone is not important except in the first syllable. This means that from the point of view of phonological typology , Tibetan could more accurately be described as a pitch-accent language than a true tone language , in the latter of which all syllables in

460-516: A lengthening of the vowel is also frequently substituted for the sounds [r] and [l] when they occur at the end of a syllable. The vowels /i/ , /y/ , /e/ , /ø/ , and /ɛ/ each have nasalized forms: /ĩ/ , /ỹ/ , /ẽ/ , /ø̃/ , and /ɛ̃/ , respectively. These historically result from /in/ , /un/ , /en/ , /on/ , /an/ , and are reflected in the written language. The vowel quality of /un/ , /on/ and /an/ has shifted, since historical /n/ , along with all other coronal final consonants, caused

506-776: A plural marker ཚོ <tsho> . Tibetan has been described as having six cases: absolutive , agentive , genitive , ablative , associative and oblique . These are generally marked by particles, which are attached to entire noun phrases, rather than individual nouns. These suffixes may vary in form based on the final sound of the root. Personal pronouns are inflected for number , showing singular, dual and plural forms. They can have between one and three registers . The Standard Tibetan language distinguishes three levels of demonstrative : proximal འདི <'di> "this", medial དེ <de> "that", and distal ཕ་གི <pha-gi> "that over there (yonder)". These can also take case suffixes. Verbs in Tibetan always come at

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552-555: A special connector particle for the units above each multiple of ten. Between 100 and 199, the connective དང dang , literally "and", is used after the hundred portion. Above ས་ཡ saya million, the numbers are treated as nouns and thus have their multiples following the word. The numbers 1, 2, 3 and 10 change spelling when combined with other numerals, reflecting a change in pronunciation in combination. Tibetan numerals Tibetan numerals Tibetan numerals (1 Million) (1 Billion) Ordinal numbers are formed by adding

598-488: A suffix to the cardinal number, པ ( -pa ), with the exception of the ordinal number "first", which has its own lexeme, དང་པོ ( dang po ). Tibetan is written with an Indic script , with a historically conservative orthography that reflects Old Tibetan phonology and helps unify the Tibetan-language area. It is also helpful in reconstructing Proto Sino-Tibetan and Old Chinese . Wylie transliteration

644-497: A word can carry their own tone. The Lhasa Tibetan verbal system distinguishes four tenses and three evidential moods. The three moods may all occur with all three grammatical persons, though early descriptions associated the personal modal category with European first-person agreement. In the 18th and 19th centuries several Western linguists arrived in Tibet: Indian indologist and linguist Rahul Sankrityayan wrote

690-459: Is a lack of contemporaneous biographical manuscripts detailing the lives of the first 26 kings, modern scholars note that the lives of the 27th king to the 32nd were better documented. The kings from Songsten Gampo , the 33rd king, to U dum Tsen the last king of the Yarlung dynasty, are well documented in many reliable Tibetan sources, and in Chinese and foreign sources. A unified Tibetan state

736-543: Is documented during the times of the kings number 31, 32, and 33. All of the earlier and later kings were known as representatives of the Yarlung dynasty, named after the Yarlung Tsampo River in the Yarlung Valley . Their titles more correctly translate as 'chief', and not as 'emperor' of Tibet. Traditional Tibetan titles for the king include tsenpo ("Chief") and lhase ("Divine Son"). In

782-590: Is rarely spoken, as opposed to Lhasa and other Tibetan cities where Chinese can often be heard. In the Texas Journal of International Law , Barry Sautman stated that "none of the many recent studies of endangered languages deems Tibetan to be imperiled, and language maintenance among Tibetans contrasts with language loss even in the remote areas of Western states renowned for liberal policies... claims that primary schools in Tibet teach Mandarin are in error. Tibetan

828-565: Is the most common system of romanization used by Western scholars in rendering written Tibetan using the Latin alphabet (such as employed on much of this page), while linguists tend to use other special transliteration systems of their own. As for transcriptions meant to approximate the pronunciation, Tibetan pinyin is the official romanization system employed by the government of the People's Republic of China , while English language materials use

874-539: The Dhaulagiri (8,172 metres (26,811 ft)). These cloud barriers cause a semi-arid climate, with reported annual precipitations of less than 500 millimetres (20 in). The region is historically divided into four valleys: Tsharka ("good growing-place"), Tarap ("auspicious excellent"), Panzang ("abode of monks"), and Nangkhong ("innermost place"). They constitute four of the seven village development committees (VDCs) that were created in 1975. The valleys south of

920-654: The Kali Gandaki Gorge . The Dolpo had to pay tax and travel to Lo Monthang to provide manual labor. For some time between the 15th century (1440?) and the 16th century, Dolpo was temporarily independent and ruled by a king from the Ra nag dynasty. In 1769, the Gorkhas conquered Kathmandu and established the Kingdom of Nepal , which would soon reach more or less the country's modern extent. In 1789, Nepal swallowed

966-525: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Tibetan, written in the Tibetan script : List of emperors of Tibet The traditional list of the ancient Yarlung dynasty 's Tibetan kings consists of 42 names. The earliest kings ruled before the Tibetan language was developed in the 7th century, and the verbal history of Tibet was thus written after their periods of rule. While there

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1012-539: The [ɛ̈] phone (resulting from /e/ in a closed syllable) and the [ɛ] phone (resulting from /a/ through the i-mutation ) are distinct or basically identical. Phonemic vowel length exists in Lhasa Tibetan but in a restricted set of circumstances. Assimilation of Classical Tibetan's suffixes, normally ' i (འི་), at the end of a word produces a long vowel in Lhasa Tibetan; the feature is sometimes omitted in phonetic transcriptions. In normal spoken pronunciation,

1058-440: The absolutive , remaining unmarked. Nonetheless, distinction in transitivity is orthogonal to volition; both the volitional and non-volitional classes contain transitive as well as intransitive verbs. The aspect of the verb affects which verbal suffixes and which final auxiliary copulae are attached. Morphologically, verbs in the unaccomplished aspect are marked by the suffix གི <gi> or its other forms, identical to

1104-421: The genitive case for nouns, whereas accomplished aspect verbs do not use this suffix. Each can be broken down into two subcategories: under the unaccomplished aspect, future and progressive /general; under the accomplished aspect, perfect and aorist or simple perfective . Evidentiality is a well-known feature of Tibetan verb morphology, gaining much scholarly attention, and contributing substantially to

1150-440: The 2011 census, the population of Dolpo is estimated to be 36,700 with the majority of these people following Buddhism as their major religion. The Dolpo are generally adherents of Bon , a religion whose origins predate Buddhism but whose modern form is officially accepted as a fifth school of Tibetan Buddhism . The remote region has preserved its Tibetan culture in relatively pure form, making it attractive to Westerners. Dolpa

1196-661: The Alps , the population migrates between villages and high-lying (4,000 to 5,000 metres or 13,000 to 16,000 feet) summer pastures, in a lifestyle referred to as samadrok (roughly "farming nomads"). Dolpo makes up the greatest part of the area of the Dolpa District, but the district's population is concentrated in the lower southern parts, where also most of the VDCs are located. Local products are not sufficient to guarantee survival. The Dolpo traditionally trade salt from Tibet to

1242-530: The Dolpo and Serib and classified them among three provinces of mNga' ris. It is also known from historical documents that Mongolian troops reached Dolpo to conquer this province when they conquered many parts of Tibet and finally handed over the power to the ruler of the Sakya period. In the 14th century Dolpo fell under its eastern neighbor the Kingdom of Lo , which controlled the trans-Himalayan trade route through

1288-514: The Lo kingdom and with it Dolpo. The kingdom's attempt to wrest nominal suzerainty over Tibet from China ended in a massive Chinese intervention that left Nepal paying tribute to China. The 1999 French-Nepalese movie Himalaya , which gives insight into the local customs, was the first Nepalese film to be nominated for an Oscar award and also a huge success in Nepal itself, drawing the country's attention to

1334-512: The THL transcription system. Certain names may also retain irregular transcriptions, such as Chomolungma for Mount Everest . Tibetan orthographic syllable structure is (C 1 C 2 )C 3 (C 4 )V(C 5 C 6 ) Not all combinations are licit. The following summarizes the sound system of the dialect of Tibetan spoken in Lhasa , the most influential variety of the spoken language. The structure of

1380-726: The Tarap Valley) on his journey from India back to his home region and his first steps as a Buddhist spiritual leader of the Dolpa. At the age of ten, he had pilgrimaged to India and after meeting the Dalai Lama had decided to become a monk. In Ka-Nying Monastery in Kathmandu he was soon recognized as the reincarnation of Lama Nyinchung and sent to Namdroling Monastery in Karnataka . After 16 years in southern India his education

1426-475: The easy availability of salt from other regions and the closed border with Tibet have put the netsang system under pressure. Dolpo appears in historical records since c. 8th century. In the time from the 6th century to the 8th century the Tibetan Yarlung dynasty conquered most Tibetan-speaking territories. This seems to have caused a southward migration towards Dolpo and the peripheral areas along

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1472-503: The end of the clause . Verbs do not show agreement in person , number or gender in Tibetan. There is also no voice distinction between active and passive ; Tibetan verbs are neutral with regard to voice. Tibetan verbs can be divided into classes based on volition and valency . The volition of the verb has a major effect on its morphology and syntax . Volitional verbs have imperative forms, whilst non-volitional verbs do not: compare ལྟོས་ཤིག <ltos shig> "Look!" with

1518-483: The four tone analysis is favored by linguists in China, DeLancey (2003) suggests that the falling tone and the final [k] or [ʔ] are in contrastive distribution , describing Lhasa Tibetan syllables as either high or low. The vowels of Lhasa Tibetan have been characterized and described in several different ways, and it continues to be a topic of ongoing research. Tournadre and Sangda Dorje describe eight vowels in

1564-498: The lower parts of Nepal, where they maintain netsang (literally "nesting place") relationships, first described by Kenneth M. Bauer. According to Bauer, each family in Dolpo has netsang partners in most villages of Dolpo District, a network that facilitates travel as well as trade. In return for salt, the netsang provide grain and shelter. The netsang partners trade with each other on preferential terms, based on family relations that may last for several generations. Recent changes such as

1610-470: The most populous), Tinje (Panzang Valley), and Chharka (Tsharka Valley). There are also smaller VDCs at Bhijer , Mukot and Phoksundo . Agriculture is possible at heights of 3,800 to 4,180 metres (12,470 to 13,710 ft) (villages of Shimen Panzang Valley and Chharka, respectively) but often requires irrigation. Apart from barley , crops include buckwheat , millet , mustard , wheat , potatoes , radishes , and spinach . Similar to transhumance in

1656-400: The non-existent * མཐོང་ཤིག <mthong shig> "*See!". Additionally, only volitional verbs can take the egophoric copula ཡིན <yin> . Verbs in Tibetan can be split into monovalent and divalent verbs; some may also act as both, such as ཆག <chag> "break". This interacts with the volition of the verb to condition which nouns take the ergative case and which must take

1702-621: The option of studying humanistic disciplines in Tibetan at a number of minority colleges in China. This contrasts with Tibetan schools in Dharamsala , India, where the Ministry of Human Resource Development curriculum requires academic subjects to be taught in English from middle school. In February 2008, Norman Baker , a UK MP, released a statement to mark International Mother Language Day claiming, "The Chinese government are following

1748-445: The region. Kenneth M. Bauer notes that the film's authenticity was in large part artificial, as dialogues mixed the standard Tibetan of the professional actors with the villagers' local dialects and all external influences in the region (such as clothes, Maoists and tourists) were hidden. He also describes the impact which the film had on the region as an employer. The 2009 documentary Dolpo Tulku accompanies Sherap Sangpo (born 1981 in

1794-518: The same sound as the one following it. The result is that the first is pronounced as an open syllable but retains the vowel typical of a closed syllable. For instance, ཞབས zhabs (foot) is pronounced [ɕʌp] and པད pad (borrowing from Sanskrit padma , lotus ) is pronounced [pɛʔ] , but the compound word, ཞབས་པད zhabs pad (lotus-foot, government minister) is pronounced [ɕʌpɛʔ] . This process can result in minimal pairs involving sounds that are otherwise allophones. Sources vary on whether

1840-455: The standard language: Three additional vowels are sometimes described as significantly distinct: [ʌ] or [ə] , which is normally an allophone of /a/ ; [ɔ] , which is normally an allophone of /o/ ; and [ɛ̈] (an unrounded, centralised, mid front vowel), which is normally an allophone of /e/ . These sounds normally occur in closed syllables; because Tibetan does not allow geminated consonants , there are cases in which one syllable ends with

1886-554: The understanding of evidentiality across languages. The evidentials in Standard Tibetan interact with aspect in a system marked by final copulae, with the following resultant modalities being a feature of Standard Tibetan, as classified by Nicolas Tournadre : Unlike many other languages of East Asia such as Burmese , Chinese , Japanese , Korean and Vietnamese , there are no numeral auxiliaries or measure words used in counting in Tibetan. However, words expressive of

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1932-520: The upper Kali Gandaki River (Lo and Serib). In 842, Tibet fell apart, and Dolpa fell under the kingdom of Purang . Purang and Dolpa became temporarily part of the kingdom of Guge in the 10th century, but soon became separate again when King sKyid lde Nyi ma mgon divided Guge among his three sons. During the reign of the Ya-rtse king A-sog-lde around 1253 both Dolpo and Serib were lost to the ruler of Gungthang, mGon po lde. The latter then reunited both

1978-698: The watershed drain into the Bheri River . The VDCs in this area are (roughly from east to west): The northern valleys between the watershed and Tibet drain westward by the Langu River , a tributary of the Karnali River via the Mugu Karnali . The VDCs in this area are: Dolpo can be roughly divided into four valleys, each of which is represented since 1975 by a village development committee (VDC): Dho (Tarap Valley), Saldang (Nankhong Valley,

2024-774: Was finished, and in 2008 he returned to his home region to take over the responsibilities of his predecessor as a Buddhist spiritual leader of the Dolpa and in particular the monasteries in Dho-Tarap, Namgung and Saldang. Standard Tibetan language In the traditional "three-branched" classification of the Tibetic languages , the Lhasa dialect belongs to the Central Tibetan branch (the other two being Khams Tibetan and Amdo Tibetan ). In terms of mutual intelligibility , speakers of Khams Tibetan are able to communicate at

2070-465: Was the location for the 1999 Oscar-nominated film Himalaya and more recently for the German documentary Dolpo Tulku . In spite of the near inaccessibility of the region and tourism restrictions for the more remote parts, Dolpa is a popular destination for trekking tourism. Dolpo is geologically part of the sedimentary Tibetan-Tethys zone. It is surrounded by Himalayan mountain chains including

2116-443: Was the main language of instruction in 98% of TAR primary schools in 1996; today, Mandarin is introduced in early grades only in urban schools.... Because less than four out of ten TAR Tibetans reach secondary school, primary school matters most for their cultural formation." An incomplete list of machine translation software or applications that can translate Tibetan language from/to a variety of other languages. From Article 1 of

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