Tibetan (All Terms)

From All Skies Encyclopaedia
Revision as of 15:04, 27 September 2026 by HaochengLyu (talk | contribs) (Added references)

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 English commentary
Nyima Sun
Dawa Moon
Rahu Ascending Lunar Node
Ketu Descending Lunar Node
Lhakpa Mercury
Pasang Venus
Mikmar Mars
Phurbu Jupiter
Penpa Saturn

Tibetan Community in India

Constellations Beyond the Zodiac

Tibetan Name Romanisation English

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[2][3] 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
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
བྱི་བཞིན། 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[4] IPA Wylie Pinyin THL Sanskrit Transliteration
ལུག luk˨˧˩ lug lug Luk मेष Mesha Aries
གླང laŋ˥˥ glang lang Lang वृषभ Vrishabha Taurus
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˥˥.sĩ˥˥ 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 Meena Pisces

Tibetan Community in Tibet

Tibetan Term Meaning Designation Comment

References

  1. ↑ Mara Johnson-Groh (2013). Stories of the Stars: The History and Folklore of Tibetan Ethnoastronomy. http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/1567
  2. ↑ Suolang, Sangmu索郎桑姆; Gelang格朗; Nanmujia南木加; Jilü吉律 (2017). ""Zangzu chuantong tianwen lisuan zhong de ershijiu xiu tixi yanjiu藏族传统天文历算中的二十八宿体系研究" [A Study on the System of the Twenty-eight Lunar Mansions in Traditional Tibetan Astronomy and Calendrical Calculations]". Journal of Tibet University (Social Sciences Edition)西藏大学学报(社会科学版). 4: 57–66.
  3. ↑ Fu, Qianji傅千吉 (2014). ""Zangzu tianwen lisu zhong ershijiu xiu de yuanyuan ji qi zuoyong藏族天文历算中二十八宿的渊源及其作用" [The Origin and Function of the 28 Lunar Mansions in Tibetan Astronomical Calendars]". Journal of Northwest University for Nationalities (Natural Science Edition)西北民族大学学报(自然科学版). 4: 80–83.
  4. ↑ Dung dkar Blo bzang 'phrin las 东噶·洛桑赤列 (Dungkar Lozang Trinlé). (Ed.). (2002). Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo东噶藏学大辞典 [Dung dkar great dictionary of Tibetan studies]. China Tibetology Publishing House中国藏学出版社. 328.