I once asked a geshé how to say “light post” in Tibetan. He scratched his head and looked around for a while before finally giving me the word in Hindi. When I said, “That’s Hindi!”, he gave me the word in Chinese. When I laughed and said, “That’s Chinese!”, he gave me the word in Nepali. When I said, “Is there no word for it in Tibetan?”, he looked at the sky for a second more and said, “We don’t talk about light posts in Tibet.”

Hindi

If you are a monk and know less than three languages, you’re a slacker. Everybody knows Hindi and Tibetan, and most monks speak another language from their homeland or its surroundings, usually Nepali or Chinese. If they don’t know one of these, they know English. But on the monastic grounds, everyone speaks Tibetan to each other.

Even the kids know at least three languages. All of them are learning English and are already fluent in Hindi and Tibetan.

Tibetan (U-chen script)

Bön also has its own language allegedly left over from the ancient Zhang Zhung empire in Tibet. They maintain that it predates the Tibetan language in both its oral and written forms and that the Tibetan language was in fact derived from it. But nobody speaks it (unless you count Kinnauri, the northern Indian dialect that is considered to be very similar), there are very few texts written in it, and most monks can’t read it beyond the basic mantras painted on the temple ceiling beams.

A comparison of Zhang Zhung (Mar-chen script) and Tibetan (U-chen script). Image shamelessly stolen from www.babelstone.co.uk.

Since the Tibetan script was modeled after Sanskrit, there are many commonalities between Tibetan and Hindi, but the resemblance ends there. Mostly. Monks incorporate Hindi words into their conversations as readily as they incorporate Chinese ones in Lhasa. Tibetan is notoriously deficient in words for high-tech products and other modern marvels like light posts.

As for me, my Tibetan is improving but it’s a challenge. I learned the central Tibetan/Lhasa dialect in school but no one speaks it here. I ask around for monks that came from this area and everyone says there are one or two, but when I ask who they are no one can say. Most monks from Tibet are from the eastern parts and speak the Amdo and Kham dialects, which can be quite tricky.

Add to all of this the incessant Polish, French, Spanish, German, and Russian swirling out of the guesthouse and you have a veritable language tsunami!