🛕 Customs

You may also be interested in the Culture section on the links page.

• Before entering a shrine room, shoes are removed.

• Feet should not point toward the altar.

• When gesturing toward something, use the whole hand, palm facing up. Do not point with one finger. 

• One traditional greeting, showing respect, is touching foreheads, meaning that your forehead lightly touches the forehead of the person that you are greeting. Another more affectionate move is to rub noses, meaning the sides of your noses swipe against each other.

• Some simple greetings can be found at this page: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c01ow4mSEcl-l_QEY2CnOHxI3b79hfnrKuWiaLx5834/edit?usp=sharing 

• Children may sit in at teachings and ceremonies. If there is a back room, kids will often congregate there to play, but otherwise come and go to their parents and other caregivers as desired.

• Bare legs are quite revealing, just as bare breasts are quite revealing in the west (while not such a big deal in Tibet, where women sometimes would work shirtless in the fields), so best to dress modestly to keep both Tibetans and Westerners comfortable around you . . .

• Tibetan tea has salted butter in it. If you prefer, sweet tea is also popular.

• White scarves are offered in welcome and sometimes upon leaving. The best way to fold them is with a long hand-fan-style fold, then wrap closed at the end. That way, it unfurls quickly when you need to open it again. It helps to have a partner hold one end, like when folding sheets . . .

• “I” is typically avoided, and merely implied. This perhaps helps diminish the habitual self-importance of the ego . . . In general, sentences tend to have more passive constructions than is typical for English. 

• Time is important, but tense is not as universally important as it is in English. I have found the -ing form of verbs to be particularly useful in interpreting the time-based rather than tense-based typical constructions in Tibetan, and you will find these increasingly used in the interlinear vocabulary notes that I provide. The -ing form is sufficiently vague and general, and makes it easier to transition mentally between the two languages.

• “Thank you” and “You’re welcome” are not said as frequently as in English. If you thank a Tibetan, you’re likely to hear something more like “okay”, or “is that so?” in response to pointing out their kindness. 

• It is best to avoid touching a monk or nun’s head, unless they are according you the respect of touching your forehead with theirs. I suppose that’s true universally, even in the west, unless you’re close friends or family, perhaps.

• Sticking out the tongue is a greeting, a sign of respect and agreement in Tibet. This is to show that one is trustworthy, and not the reincarnation of a black-tongued tyrant king from Tibetan folklore. You will probably not see this in other countries, but perhaps on a trip to rural areas of Tibet.

• A good meat mok mok (dumpling) also has hot liquid in it. Careful to not let it spill out . . .