Authors: Youla Azkarrula, Susanne M Hoffmann
In the early prehistory of Tibet, astronomy was used for basic purposes like that of the old grandmother’s. In order to know when to plant and harvest the crop, astrological markers, like the length of the day and the arrival of certain constellations in the sky, were consulted. [1]
Solar System Names
| Tibetan
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English
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commentary
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| Nyima
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Sun
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| Dawa
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Moon
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| Rahu
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Ascending Lunar Node
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| Ketu
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Descending Lunar Node
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| Lhakpa
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Mercury
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| Pasang
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Venus
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| Mikmar
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Mars
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| Phurbu
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Jupiter
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| Penpa
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Saturn
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Constellations Beyond the Zodiac
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Tibetan Name
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Romanisation
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English
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Tibetan Lunar System(s)
Lunar Mansion
The star names documented in the table below draw from multiple sources. Johnson-Groh (2013) collected star names from the Tibetan community in Dharamsala, India, rather than from within Tibet itself. This compilation is polished by Lyu Haocheng and the IPA(s) are the consideration as the native spelling.
The Indian system traditionally identifies 27 nakshatras, with Abhijit sometimes included as the 28th or merged with Jyeṣṭhā. The Tibetan system follows this convention with variations.
Tibetan Lunar Mansions (rgyu-skar / gyu gar / Gyukar)
| No.
|
Tibetan
|
IPA
|
Wylie
|
Pinyin
|
THL
|
Sanskrit
|
Chinese
|
| 0
|
ཐ་སྐར།
|
tʰa˥˥.kaː˥˥
|
tha-skar
|
ta gar
|
Takar
|
Aśvinī
|
娄 Bond
|
| 1
|
བྲ་ཉེ།
|
ʈ͡ʂʰa˨˩.ȵe˥˦
|
bra-nye
|
cha nyê
|
Dranye
|
Bharaṇī
|
胃 Stomach
|
| 2
|
སྨིན་དྲུག
|
mĩ˥˥.ʈ͡ʂuk˥˧
|
smin-drug
|
min zhug
|
Mindruk
|
Kṛttikā
|
昴 Hairy Head
|
| 3
|
སྣར་མ།
|
naː˥˥.ma˥˦
|
snar-ma
|
nar ma
|
Narma
|
Rohiṇī
|
毕 Net
|
| 4
|
མགོ
|
ko˩˧
|
mgo
|
go
|
Go
|
Mrigaśirā
|
觜 Beak
|
| 5
|
ལག
|
lak˨˧˩
|
lag
|
lag
|
Lak
|
Ārdrā
|
参 Three Stars
|
| 6
|
ནབས་སོ།
|
nap˨˩.so˥˦
|
nabs-so
|
nab so
|
Nabso
|
Punarvasu
|
井 Well
|
| 7
|
རྒྱལ།
|
cɛː˩˩˦
|
rgyal
|
gyai / gyä
|
Gyal
|
Puṣya
|
鬼 Ghosts
|
| 8
|
སྐག
|
kak˥˧
|
skag
|
gag
|
Kak
|
Āśleṣā
|
柳 Willow
|
| 9
|
མཆུ།
|
t͡ɕʰu˥˦
|
mchu
|
qu
|
Chu
|
Maghā
|
星 Stars
|
| 10
|
གྲེ
|
ʈ͡ʂʰe˩˧
|
gre
|
chê
|
Dre
|
Pūrva-Phālgunī
|
张 Extended Net
|
| 11
|
དབོ།
|
wo˥˦
|
dbo
|
wo
|
Wo
|
Uttara-Phālgunī
|
翼 Wings
|
| 12
|
མེ་བཞི།
|
me˨˩.ɕi˥˦
|
me-bzhi
|
mê xi
|
Mezhi
|
Hasta
|
轸 Chariot
|
| 13
|
ནག་པ།
|
nak˨˩.pa˥˦
|
nag-pa
|
nag ba
|
Nakpa
|
Citrā
|
角 Horn
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| 14
|
ས་རི།
|
sa˥˥.ɾi˥˦
|
sa-ri
|
sa ri
|
Sari
|
Svāti
|
亢 Net
|
| 15
|
ས་ག
|
sa˥˥.ka˥˦
|
sa-ga
|
sa ga
|
Saga
|
Viśākhā
|
氐 Root
|
| 16
|
ལྷ་མཚམས།
|
l̥a˥˥.tsʰam˥˧
|
lha-mtshams
|
lha cam
|
Lhatsam
|
Anurādhā
|
房 Room
|
| 17
|
སྣྲོན།
|
nø̃˥˥
|
snron
|
noin / nön
|
Nrön
|
Jyeṣṭhā
|
心 Heart
|
| 18
|
སྣྲུབས།
|
nup˥˧
|
snrubs
|
nub
|
Nup
|
Mūla
|
尾 Tail
|
| 19
|
ཆུ་སྟོད།
|
t͡ɕʰu˥˥.tøʔ˥˧
|
chu-stod
|
qu doi / qu dö
|
Chutö
|
Pūrvāṣādhā
|
箕 Winnowing Basket
|
| 20
|
ཆུ་སྨད།
|
t͡ɕʰu˥˥.mɛʔ˥˧
|
chu-smad
|
qu mai / qu mä
|
Chume
|
Uttarāṣādhā
|
斗 Dipper
|
| 21
|
གྲོ་བཞིན།
|
ʈ͡ʂʰo˨˩.ɕĩ˩˦
|
gro-bzhin
|
cho xin
|
Drozhin
|
Uttara-Āṣādhā
|
牛 Ox
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|
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བྱི་བཞིན།
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t͡ɕʰi˨˩.ɕĩ˩˦
|
byi-bzhin
|
qi xin
|
Jizhin
|
Śravaṇa
|
女 Woman
|
| 22
|
མོན་གྲེ།
|
mø̃˨˩.ʈ͡ʂe˥˦
|
mon-gre
|
moin zhê / mön zhê
|
Mondre
|
Dhaniāstha
|
虚 Emptiness
|
| 23
|
མོན་གྲུ།
|
mø̃˨˩.ʈ͡ʂu˥˦
|
mon-gru
|
moin zhu / mön zhu
|
Mondru
|
Satabhiṣak
|
危 Rooftop
|
| 24
|
ཁྲུམས་སྟོད།
|
ʈ͡ʂʰum˥˥.tøʔ˥˧
|
khrums-stod
|
chum doi / chum dö
|
Trumtö
|
Pūrva-Bhādrapadā
|
室 Encampment
|
| 25
|
ཁྲུམས་སྨད།
|
ʈ͡ʂʰum˥˥.mɛʔ˥˧
|
khrums-smad
|
chum mai / chum mä
|
Trume
|
Uttara-Bhādrapadā
|
壁 Wall
|
| 26
|
ནམ་གྲུ།
|
nam˨˩.ʈ͡ʂu˥˦
|
nam-gru
|
nam zhu
|
Namdru
|
Revatī
|
奎 Legs
|
Tibetan zodiac based on Rashi
| Tibetan
|
Indian (Hindu)
|
IAU-modern
|
| Tibetan Scripts
|
IPA
|
Wylie
|
Pinyin
|
THL
|
Sanskrit
|
Transliteration
|
| ལུག
|
luk˨˧˩
|
lug
|
lug
|
Luk
|
मेष
|
Mesha
|
Aries
|
| གླང
|
laŋ˥˥
|
glang
|
lang
|
Lang
|
वृषभ
|
Vrishabha
|
Taurus
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| འཁྲིག
|
ʈ͡ʂʰik˥˧
|
'khrig
|
chig
|
Trik
|
मिथुन
|
Mithuna
|
Gemini
|
| ཀརྚ་ཀ
|
kaː.ta.ka
|
kar-ṭa-ka
|
gar da ga
|
Karkata
|
कर्क
|
Karka/ Karkata
|
Cancer
|
| སེང་གེ
|
seŋ˥˥.ke˥˦
|
seng-ge
|
sêng gê
|
Senge
|
सिंह
|
Simha
|
Leo
|
| བུ་མོ
|
pu˨˩.mo˥˦
|
bu-mo
|
pu mo
|
Pumo
|
कन्या
|
Kanya
|
Virgo
|
| སྲང
|
saŋ˥˥
|
srang
|
sang
|
Sangwa
|
तुला
|
Tula
|
Libra
|
| སྡིག་པ
|
tik˨˩.pa˥˦
|
sdig-pa
|
dig ba
|
Dikpa
|
वृश्चिक
|
Vrishchika
|
Scorpius
|
| གཞུ
|
ɕu˩˧
|
gzhu
|
xu
|
Zhu
|
धनु
|
Dhanu
|
Sagittarius
|
| ཆུ་སྲིན
|
t͡ɕʰu˥˥.sĩː˥˥
|
chu-srin
|
qu sin
|
Chusin
|
मकर
|
Makara
|
Capricornus
|
| བུམ་པ
|
pʰum˨˩.pa˥˦
|
bum-pa
|
pum ba
|
Bumpa
|
कुंभ
|
Kumbha
|
Aquarius
|
| ཉ
|
ȵa˩˧
|
nya
|
nya
|
Nya
|
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Meena
|
Pisces
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| Tibetan Term
|
Meaning
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Designation
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Comment
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References
