སྙིང་རུས།

The etymology of snying rus “firmness of mind (heart), i.e. diligence, zeal, perseverance” (Jäschke 1881: 189) is “heart’s bone” (snying gyi rus pa). See also the Padma bka’ thang (p. 664): ngu pas mi phan snying la rus pa gyis ||. Note that thugs rus (honorific) is recorded in  Jäschke 1881: 189 but not in the Bod rgya. Cf. also sdug rus byed “to struggle.”

ཐང་།

Here are some compounds with thang. The component thang (at least in some compounds) is said to be derived from the Chinese (Bod rgya). But is there something common in all groups of compounds? Can the meanings of thang be subsumed into two: (a) “liquid essence (of something boiled)” denoting some nourishing or rejuvenating power and (b) “plane” or “flat surface” (of something)? At any rate, here are some roughly organized compounds.

(a) Connected with “liquid essence (of something)”?

1. ja thang, i.e. un-churned tea (ma bsrubs pa’i ja)

2. sha thang “(clear) meat-soup” (sha’i khu ba)

3. rus thang “bone-soup”

(b) Connected with plane or flat surface?

1. spang thang

2. bye thang

3. byang thang

4. rtswa thang

5. gram thang

6. klung thang

7. rkyang thang

8. skyin thang “blizzard” (?)

1. Klong/Glong thang

2. sTong thang

3. ’Phang thang

4. Li thang

5. ’Ba’ thang

6. rTse thang

7. Glang thang

(c) Connected with “liquid essence (of something)”?

1. rin thang “cost, price”

2. gong thang “cost/price”

3. skor thang “yield”

(d) Connected with “plane” or “liquid essence”?

1. mnga’ thang

2. thob thang

3. dbang thang

4. ’jon thang

(e) Connected with “liquid essence” (and thus also “glow”)?

1. gsal thang 

2. bde thang 

3. mkhrang thang

4. thang dkar (rgod po) 

5. (bya rgod) thang nag

6. (bya rgod) thang smug

(f) Connected with plane or flat surface?

1. thang ka/ga

2. sku thang

3. bris thang

4. dkyil thang

5. gos thang

(g) Connected with “liquid essence”?

1. thang shing

2. thang dmar

(h) Connected with “liquid essence”?

1. thang g/cig (cf. thengs gcig)

(i) Connected with “liquid essence”?

1. thang chad pa

2. yid thang chad pa

(k) Connected with plane or flat surface?

1. rkang thang “on foot”

ལོ་ན། ན་སོ། ན་ཚོད།

lo na, na so, na tshod: 

Dan Martin informs me that as reported by one Tibetan source and according to his Lonely Planet Mongolian Phrasebook, na so could be from the Mongolian nas meaning ‘age.’ I have no way to confirm or contradict it. All I can do is gather some Tibetan words containing na, which has the meaning of ‘age.’ 

1. lo na “age”

2. na so “age,” e.g. na so rgas pa’i rta (Bod rgya)

3. na tshod “age”

4. na gzhon (contraction of na tshod or lo na gzhon pa) “youth”

5. nar son “one who has come of age”

6. na ning “year before last”

7. na mnyam “of the same age”
8. na chung ma “a young girl” (suggested by Pavel)

If na has indeed been borrowed from from the Mongolian, then it must have occurred from pretty early on because at least na tshod can be found also in translated literature.

x+པོ་/བོ་/མོ་ཆེ།

x + po/bo/mo che:

The compound “x + po/bo/mo che” has often the meaning “a great x” or “of great x” and it can be abbreviated as “x chen.”

1. rin po che
2. glang po che
3. ri bo che
4. rnga bo che
5. zur po che
6. sdig po che
7. rlabs po che
8. phal po che
9. lam po che
10. ra mo che
11. gal po che
12. khang mo che
13. sgo mo che
14. mthu mo che
15. mda’ mo che
16. sbrang mo che
17. gru bo che
18. sga bo che
19. sgra bo che
20. sna bo che
21. me po che
22. rmad po che
23. rtsal po che
24. gtsigs po che
25. tshan po che
26. dar po che
27. gzugs po che
28. ’ud po che
29. ’od po che
30. yur po che
31. g.yer po che

དབྱུང་།

dbyung:

1. phyir dbyung “to expel”
2. sun dbyung “to criticise”
3. dbugs dbyung “to reassure/console”
4. bogs dbyung “to enhance or improve upon”
5. gnas dbyung “to expel”
6. sgrigs dbyung “to expel”
7. khungs dbyung “to challenge/question/undermine”

ཁྲོད།

khrod:


1. ri khrod
2. gangs khrod
3. nags khrod
4. dur khrod
5. mun khrod
6. dmangs khrod
7. ’dam khrod
8. phyag dar khrod
9. gad snyigs khrod
10. rdza khrod
11. g.ya’khrod

ལམ།

lam:

Some compounds having lam as the last syllable: 

1. mthun lam

2. sgrigs lam

4. smon lam

5. spyod lam

6. gshang lam

7. mig lam

8. rmi/mnal/gzims lam

9. rna lam

10. chu lam

cf. brgya lam. Other compounds such as mthong lam are not interesting in this context.

xxx

རྨི་ལམ།

rmi lam:

What could be the etymology of rmi lam (honourifics: mnal/gzims lam) “dream”? It is clear that that rmi is  derived from rmi ba “to dream” and lam means “path, way, course, alley.” Perhaps “alley of sleep”? We also come across its synonym gnyid lam, which clearly suggests “sleep-path.”

གལ་ཏེ་ན།

gal te na:

The commentary on the sMra sgo (most probably by Rong-zom-pa) explains gal te na. See the Rong zom gsung ’bum (vol. 2, p. 451). If I understand correctly, gal te na seems to be explained as gang la ci zhig na (“in something somewhere/somehow”) meaning “provided/given” (preposition). That is, gal is a contraction of gang la. The text reads lar instead of la but I wonder if the reading is correct. And ci zhig has been elided (or rather substituted with te). According to Si-tu-paṇ-chen, the sMra sgo and its commentary have proposed that gal is contracted from gang la,  te na from ste na, and ste na from ci zhig na. Some Tibetan scholars have criticised this etymology but Si-tu-paṇ-chen seems to (partially) endorse it. See his Mu tig phreng mdzes (p. 246).

Dan Martin has made some insightful remarks in an old blog, which I reproduce here verbatim:

“Tibetanists usually just accept the gal te as having a syntactical use in the sentence, but not as a word with meaning of its own. It’s only used in this particular clause formation. It marks the onset of a conditional clause, just as the na marks the end of the same, but the na alone is perfectly capable of working on its own without any help from the gal te.

I’ve heard some speculation about the original meaning of gal te, that it's some archaic construction that got frozen in place as an adverbial form until it was no longer understood in its original meaning. That seems to be true as far as I know. I imagine its meaning would have been something like ‘contrarily’ (taking it as related to the non-archaic verb ’gal ba that has this kind of meaning). Any other ideas out there?”

རལ་གྲི།

ral gri:

“Sword” (ral gri) is indeed a special kind of “knife” (gri) and is perhaps to be etymologised as “slitting/slashing/lacerating (ral) knife (gri).” How about: ral bar byed pa’i gri yin pas na ral gri’o ||?

གཅེན་པོ། གཅུང་པོ།

gcen po, gcung po:

Could there be a possibility that gcen po “elder brother” and gcung po “younger brother” were built analogous to chen po “big” and chung ba “small”?

ཕུག། བུ་ག།

phug, bu ga:

“To bore a hole” in Tibetan is ’big(s)/’bug(s)/phig/phug pa (present); phigs/phug (perfect); dbig/dbug (future); phig(s)/phug (imperative). A number of words containing (a) phug pa (or phug in compund) and bug pa or bu ga (or bug in compound) have been derived from this verb “to bore a hole.” (a) Some words that mean “grotto” or “cavern” are brag phug, dben phug, sa phug, ri phug, and sgrub phug. (b) Note also mchan phug “arm-pit” and lgang phug “bladder” (called because of its capiciousness). What could be the etymology of la phug “raddish”? Perhaps “something (like a peg) that bores a hole in a hill slope”? (c) Note also rtsig bug = rtsig pa’i bu ga (“hole in the wall”); sna bug = sna’i bu ga (“nostril”); sa bug = sa yi bu ga (“a hole in the earth/soil).”

རྨད་དུ་བྱུང་བ། ཕུལ་དུ་བྱུང་བ། ཕུལ་དུ་ཕྱིན་པ།

rmad u byung ba = phul du byung ba = phul du phyin pa. Both mean something like “stunning,” “supreme,” “superlative,” and so on. But what do rmad and phul mean? Jäschke has for rmad pa “wonderful, amazing” but again this meaning seems to be based on the usage of rmad in the phrase rmad du byung ba. Compare also rmad pa = rmad po = rmad po che (Bod rgya). It seems that rmad is a direct opposite of smad and hence if smad means “base” or “nadir,” rmad could well mean “apex, zenith.” Thus rmad du byung ba could literally mean something like “that which has emerged on the apex,” i.e. the best. What about phul? Jäschke knew phul only in the phrase phul du phyin pa and wondered (with a question mark) if it means “end.” I wonder if phul here is linked with phul in the sense of “a handful” and rather means “palm of the hand” and thus phul du byung/phyin pa may mean something like “that which has emerged on or arrived in the hand/palm,” and thus having the meaning of, so to speak, “something that is handpicked,” meaning “exquisite and superb.” But as usual these are very uncertain and highly speculative. 

ཁོལ་དུ་ཕྱུང་།

khol du phyung:

What is khol in khol du phyung “something that is extracted, taken out” supposed to mean? Jäschke provides “abridgement” as one of the meanings of khol, but it is based on the expressions khol bu (“a small piece”) and khol du phyung itself and hence not quite helpful. Note that phyung is the perfect and imperative form of ’byin (present) “to cause to come forth, to draw/pull out” and dbyung being the future form. In addition, khol pa is said to mean (a) “boiled” and (b) “boiling, bubbling” (Jäschke 1881: s.v. khol pa). Following Csoma de Körös, Jäschke gives “anything boiled” and adds “perhaps more accurately: anything boiling” and gives “boiling water” (chu khol ma) and “a boiling lake of poison” (dug mtsho khol ma) as examples. So piecing together all these information, I would speculate that khol du phyung ba literally means “extracted (or that is extracted) in a bubbling/boiling (i.e. exuberant) manner.” Cf. gab pa rnams khol du bton & gces nor rnams mdzod khang nas khol du phyung ste bzhag pa (Bod rgya). Consider also the famous “treasure” called the bKa’ chems ka khol ma (also called lHa sa’i dkar chag), said to be revealed by Atiśa from a pillar of the lHa-sa temple.

ཁལ།

khal:

The Tibetan word khal means both “burden, load” and “twenty, score.”  According to Jäschke, 1 khal =   “bushel,” a dry measurement  = 20 bre (a measurement) and thus = a score, or 20 things of the same kind. So “twenty” bre would make the average weight of a standard “load” or “luggage.” Note that also according to the numerical system of Tshangs-lha, “one khal” (khal thur) means twenty, and that 100 = 5 khal (khal lnga), and so on.

     

གློ་བུར་དུ།

glo bur du:

What may be the etymology of glo bur du “suddenly, instantaneously” (adverb)? Perhaps “in the manner of popping up (bur) in the lung/mind or on the side (glo).” That which pops up in the mind/lung is glo bur ba “adventitious” (adjective or substantive).

ཁ་ཆེ།

Kha-che:

Kāśmīra and Muslim in Tibetan are called kha che, and one would think that the etymology “Big Mouth” is self-evident though not self-explanatory. It is, however, most likely that we are dealing here with a false friend and that actually the name represents a slightly corrupt phonetic rendering of kaccha. See MW (s.vv. kāśmīra & kaśmīra): kacchādi (“kaccha, and so on”). That the Tibetan name Kha-che is derived from Kāśmīra is pointed out in bsTan-gos’s Bod skad ming brda rig pa (p. 63) but does not explain how.    

སྐྱེས་བུ། སྐྱེས་པ། སྐྱེས་མ།

skyes bu, skyes pa, skyes ma: 

Could it be that skyes bu “mankind” literarily means “a born progeny” (cf. bu pho and bu mo)? Likewise skyes pa (“man”) means literarily “a born male,” and skyes ma “woman” literarily means “a born female”? Cf. skye ba, skye bo, skye dgu/rgu.

ཁས་འཆེ་བ། ཁས་ལེན་པ།

Here come the speculative etymology of khas ’che ba “to assert, maintain, claim” or also “to be alleged” as in the case of “alleged monk” (khas ’ches pa’i dge long)* and considered to be synonymous with khas len pa (Bod rgya, s.v. khas ’che ba). It is clear that khas is the (frozen) instrumental form of kha (“mouth” or “speech”) but what about ’che ba. Note the (archaic) orthography in the brDa dkrol (s.v. mches pa). Jäschke provides the meaning “to assure” or “to promise” but the only combination seems to be khas ’che ba but I feel that the meaning is still somewhat uncertain. It is truly speculative but I wonder if ’che ba and mche ba (“corner-tooth, canine teeth, fang, tusk”) are cognates and that ’che ba once meant “to plant (e.g. seedling) or to implant” or perhaps “to bore/dig/cut into something.” Note that in Tshangs-lha (a language spoken, for instance, in East Bhutan) “to plant” (e.g. a seedling) is also called ’che ba. And possibly mche ba (noun) meant a special “instrument of making an incision or digging/boring/cutting into (something)” (cf. “incision tooth” in English) and if mche ba had once a verbal form, then it could have meant “to make an incision” or “to dig/cut into (something).” In short, the etymology of khas ’che ba could possibly be “to plant something verbally” and khas len pa “to accept verbally.”           

* Cf. Bod rgya (s.v. dge sbyong du khas ’che ba).

‘x’+མ་+‘y’

‘x’+ma+‘y’:

“neither ‘x’ nor ‘y’ but somehow (is or appears to be) both”

1.      ’khyug ma tshugs “neither-cursive-nor-printed” (Bod rgya)

2.      bya ma bum “neither-bird-nor-vase,” i.e. a special vase (Bod rgya)

3.      bya ma bye’u “neither-bird-nor-chick” (Bod rgya)

4.      bya ma byi “neither-bird-nor-cat,” i.e. bat (Bod rgya)

5.      cha ma ya “neither-pair-nor-piece” (Bod rgya)

6.      dkar ma nag “neither-white-nor-black” (Bod rgya)

7.      gangs ma char “neither-snow-nor-rain” (Bod rgya)

8.      gsa’ ma gzig “neither-gsa’?-nor-leopard”? (Bod rgya)

9.      gzhas ma shags “neither-song-nor-quarrel” (Bod rgya)

10.   kha ma char “neither-snow-nor-rain” (Bod rgya)

11.   khrag ma rnag “neither-blood-nor-puss” (Bod rgya)

12.   ra ma lug “neither-goat-nor-sheep” (Bod rgya)

13.   rong ma ’brog “neither-valley-nor-highland”? (Bod rgya)  

14.   sa ma ’brog “neither-field-nor-highland”? (Bod rgya)

15.   sa ma rdo “neither-soil-nor-stone” (Bod rgya)

16.   sha ma tshil “neither-meat-nor-fat” (Bod rgya)

17.   ya ma zung “neither-single-nor-pair” (Bod rgya)

18.   yul ma ’brog “neither-village-nor-pastureland” (Bod rgya)

19.   bya ma rta “neither-bird-nor-horse,” a messenger, or a spy?

གཙུག་ལག། རྩ་ལག། ཡན་ལག།

gtsug lag, rtsa lag, yan lag:

Could it be that both gtsug lag and rtsa lag contain yan lag? Perhaps gtsug lag = “crown/crest” (gtsug) +  “limb” (yan lag) = a higher constellation with spiritual/scientific relevance (e.g. temple, science, or scientific treatise)? rtsa lag = “root” (rtsa ba) + “limb” (yan lag) = a lower constellation with mundane/familiar relevance (e.g. kindred)? Note also cha lag.

Cf. brDa dkrol (s.v.): ’phags pa’i gtsug nas bton te zhu byed kyi lag tu bzhag pas…. This is truly a folk  etymology and I do not consider it plausible at all. Such an etymology has been ridiculed by Tshe-tan-zhabs-drung, Thon mi’i zhal lung (p. 64).

For articles on the term gtsug lag, see http://earlytibet.com/category/bon/page/2/.

འོད་ཟེར།

’od zer:

What may be the etymology of ’od zer “ray of light”? Most probably “light-nail” or “light-spike.” It is also spelt as ’od gzer (Jäschke 1881: s.v. gzer). In addition gzer in lcags gzer “iron-nail,” nyi/zla gzer “sun/moon rays,” so gzer (“tooth-ache”), gzer ba (verb) meaning “to into bore” and “to feel pain” seem somehow all related: (a) experience of pain (e.g. mgo gzer), (b) the instrument of pain (e.g. lcags/shing gzer), and (c) the act of inflicting pain.    

བརྟུལ་ཞུགས།

b/rtul zhugs:

rGan Padma-rgyal-mtshan suggested as an etymology of b/rtul zhugs (vrata) the following: “Because one enters (zhugs) into the latter practice/conduct after refining (brtul) the former, [it] is called brtul zhugs” (spyod pa snga ma brtul zhing phyi ma la zhugs pas na brtul zhugs). But perhaps this is ahistorical. One possibility is to understand brtul zhugs as practice that is characterised by “entering (zhugs) into hardships (rtul) or engaging (zhugs) in austerities (rtul),” that is, by taking rtul as having the meaning of “effort/labour” (rtsol ba / ’bad pa), or perhaps “engagement (zhugs) in arduous (dpa’ ba) deeds.” See the Tshig mdzod chen mo (s.v. rtul ba). Cf. also rtul phod.

བདུད་རྩི།

bdud rtsi:

The Tibetan word for “nectar,” “elixir,” or “ambrosia” is bdud rtsi but what could be its etymology? I would like to speculate as follows: ’chi bdag gi bdud kyi gnyen por gyur pa’i rtsi yin pas na bdud rtsi zhes bya’o || “Because [it] is a potion (rtsi), an antidote to the Lord of Death, the Evil One (bdud), [it] is called “Potion of the Evil One.” Indeed, a sub-commentary of the Ngag sgron (p. 334), explains bdud rtsis as “death-destroying substance” (’chi ba ’joms byed kyi rdzas), where bdud is understood to be a metaphor for death. Cf. sbrang rtsi, dkar rtsi, tshon rtsi, dngul rtsi, etc.

ངོ་མཚར།

ngo mtshar:

If we take ngo—in ngo mtshar che ba “to be wonderful/marvellous/amazing” (as a verb) and ngo tshar chen po “wonderful/marvellous/amazing” (as an adjective) or “wonder, marvel” or “something that is wonderful” (noun)—to mean “visage/face,” what could mtshar ba mean? I wonder if mtshar can also be a verb (seems to be recorded nowhere as such), that is, a intransitive and heteronomous verb meaning something like “to sparkle/glisten/glimmer/glow.” Consider the following expression: ’ja’ kha dog mtshar yang snying po med “Although rainbow sparkles (or is sparkling/dazzling) in colour, [it] is essence-less.” Perhaps ngo mtshar could mean “a quality  that cause one’s face (ngo) to radiate/glow (mtshar)” or “that which has a sparkling/dazzling facade/frontage/appearance.” Cf. also khyad mtshar & nyams mtshar. 

སྣ་ཚོགས།

sna tshogs:

The etymology of the Tibetan word for “various” or “diverse” (sna tshogs) is “collection/assortiment” (tshogs) of “kind/species” (sna). See Ngag sgron yang ’grel (p. 359).

ན་རོ།

na ro:

The o-vowel sign called na ro in Tibetan  etymologically means “nose-horn” (sna ru). But it does not probably mean “ear-horn,” that is, despite the orthography rna ro.

མཐར་ཐུག །

mthar thug:

The etymology of the Tibetan word for “ultimate” (mthar thug) is “touching the end.” It is also synonymous with mthar phyin “arrived at the end” and mthas gtugs “touched with the end.” See the Thon mi’i dgongs rgyan (p. 162): mtha’ la son pa’am mtha’ la reg pa.

ལུས།

lus:

The etymology of “body” (lus) given by dGe-chos: “Because [it] remains at the time of death, [it] is called remainder (shi tshe lus pas lus zer).” See the dGe chos gsung ’bum (vol. 5, p. 75).

ཡུད་ཙམ།

yud tsam:

According to the dGe chos gsung ’bum (vol. 5, p. 76), yud tsam (“a mere moment/instant”) is derived from yid tsam “mere mind.”

འོ་ན།

’o na:

According to dGe-chos, ’o na “well then” is derived from ’o de na “Oh, there” or “Oh, in that [case].” See the dGe chos gsung ’bum (vol. 5, p. 74).

བྱི་དོར་བྱེད་པ།

byi dor byed pa:

The verbal phrase byi dor byed pa means “to clean” (a place). But about its etymology? Clearly byi dor byed pa has the etymology of “to do the wiping and discarding.” Similarly the etymology of its synonym phyi bdar/brdar byed pa would be “to do the wiping and polishing/rubbing.”

ཆུ་སྲིན།

chu srin:

The etymology of the Tibetan word for “crocodile” would be “water-demon,” or “water-monster.” Note that in Hahn 1985: 276, chu srin has been etymologised as “water-worm” and as meaning “dolphin.”

རུས་སྦལ།

rus sbal:

The etymology of the Tibetan word for “turtle/tortoise” (rus sbal) is “bone-frog.” Cf. “Knochenfrosch” (Hahn 1985: 334).

ཁྱིམ་མཚེས།

khyim mtshes:

The Tibetan word for “neighbouring house/family/household” is khyim mtshes but have we thought about its etymology? Probably a good way of rendering it would be “twin-family/house/household,” and mtshe ma being the word for “twin.”   

1. khyim mtshes “twin-family/house/household”

2. shag mtshes “twin-cell,” i.e. neighbouring monastic cell/room 

3. sdum mtshes = (archaic) khyim mtshes

4. gral mtshes “twin-row,” i.e. neighbour in the same row or a row-mate

5. khang mtshes “twin-house/household,” i.e. neighbour in a village

ཀླད་ཀོར།

klad kor:

The Tibetan word klad kor means (a) a small circle (i.e. °), standing for anusvāra, and nowadays (b) zero is called klad kor (modern) or thig kor (classical). But what about is etymology? Actually it is a “circle (kor) above (klad).” This etymology has been recognised also in the Tshig mdzod chen mo (s.v. klad skor 2): yi ge’i klad kyi thig kor te legs sbyar gyi yi ge’i klad du bris pa’i dbyibs sgor sgor gyi rtags la zer |.

ནག་དང་ནགས། གང་དང་གངས། ཚིག་དང་ཚིགས་ལ་སོགས་པ།

Possibly Tibetan words with and without secondary s-suffix (i.e. yang ’jug) are cognates but have been  given a clear semantic distinction. Often, it appears as though one form represents a specification or particularisation of the corresponding other. We can consider some examples:

1. nag vs. nags: Possibly Tibetans viewed “forest” (nags), particularly thick forest, to be a dangerous and dark (nag) place. It may also be that forests appeared to Tibetans, particularly, when viewed from afar, dark. 

2. gang vs. gangs: “Snow” (gangs) might have been viewed by Tibetans to be a white entity that usually “fills” (gang) or overlays a large area and hence “that which fills” (gang) is “snow” (gangs).

3. tshig vs. tshigs: In a syllabic language such as Tibetan, each syllable forms a unit (i.e. graphically and  phonetically, often separated with a tsheg “dot”). Could it be that even tsheg/s is cognate to tshig/s? Thus a tshig (perhaps here “syllable,” rather than “word”) in Tibetan is a phonetic unit, or rather an “internode” formed by two “nodes” (tshigs), or graphically enclosed by two “dots” (tsheg). One could also compare here units of bones and joints of mammals, or nodes and internodes of bamboo stems. Verse-lines in Tibetan are called “feet” (following Sanskrit pāda) and verses or stanzas (kārikā) are called tshigs su bcad pa “those that are cut regularly at the nodes,” and hence verse-lines are “internodes” and a stanza/verse often containing four such “internodes.”


         

བྲང་།

brang:

That the word brang in the following compound means “domicile, dwelling, night-quarters, abode, halting-place” (gnas) has been made clear by Jäschke and dGe-chos:

1. pho brang “castle,” “palace” (Jäschke 1881: s.v.)

2. bla brang “bla ma’s residence complex”

3. gzims brang (Jäschke 1881: s.v. brang)

4. mchis ’brang (Jäschke 1881: s.v.)
5. dkon cog pho brang = gtsug lag khang (brDa rnying, s.v.)

See the dGe chos gsung ’bum (vol. 5, p. 73). Note that in rDzong-kha the halting-place for cows/cattle or or cow/cattle-herds is also called nor byang sa (from nor brang sa) and the same in Tshangs-lha is called wa [= ba] brang sa.

སྦྲང་ཆར།

sbrang char:

One might wonder as to what “honey-rain” (sbrang char) in Tibetan means. This word is not recorded by Jäschke. But it clear that it seems “drizzle.” See the Tshig mdzod chen mo (s.v. sbrang char): “honey-like fine/light rain that nourishes plants and crops” (rtsi shing lo tog sogs gso byed sbrang rtsi lta bu’i gru char). Cf. rDa dag (s.v. sbrang char): “drizzling rain that fall in time” (dus la ’bab pa’i char sil).