Café & Drinks

1. མར་ཇ་གཅིག་གནང་རོགས།

   Mar-ja chig nang-rok

   Please give me a cup of butter tea

   Usage

   Essential phrase to order butter tea (po-cha), Tibet's traditional drink. A vital energy source at high altitude

   Grammar Note

   "Nang" is the honorific form of "give." "Rok" adds politeness. "Mar-ja" is inseparable from daily Tibetan life

2. ཆང་ཕོར་པ་གཅིག་གནང་རོགས།

   Chang phor-pa chig nang-rok

   Please bring one glass of chang (Tibetan barley beer)

   Usage

   Used to order chang, Tibet's traditional fermented barley beer. Drunk at festivals and family gatherings

   Grammar Note

   "Nang" is the honorific form of "give/do" and "rok" makes it a polite request. Chang has thousands of years of history as a fermented beverage in Tibet

3. ཆུ་གཅིག་གནང་རོགས།

   Chu chig nang-rok

   Please give me one water

   Usage

   Hydration is crucial for altitude sickness prevention. Always carry water while traveling in Tibet's highlands

   Grammar Note

   "Chu" is the most basic Tibetan word for water. "Chig" (one) can be used without a classifier

4. ཇ་དམར་པོ་གཅིག་གནང་རོགས།

   Ja mar-po chig nang-rok

   Please give me one red tea (black tea)

   Usage

   Used to order black tea, influenced by Indian tea culture. Available at Tibetan cafes and canteens

   Grammar Note

   "Mar-po" means "red." In Tibetan, black tea is called "red tea." It's as popular as butter tea

5. བཏུང་བ་འདིའི་མིང་ཅི་ཞེས་བྱ།

   Tung-wa di-i ming chi-zhey-ja

   What is this drink called?

   Usage

   Used to ask the name of an unfamiliar drink. Handy when exploring Tibetan food culture

   Grammar Note

   "Zhey-ja" is a passive expression meaning "is called/named." It's the standard pattern for asking names

6. གྲང་མོ་གཅིག་ཞུ།

   Drang-mo chig zhu

   One cold drink please

   Usage

   Used to request a cold drink during warm season or in Tibet's lower altitude areas

   Grammar Note

   "Drang-mo" is the adjective "cold." "Zhu" is the humble request form widely used in Tibetan requests

7. འོ་ཇའི་གོང་ཅི་རེད།

   O-ja gong chi-re

   How much does milk tea cost?

   Usage

   Used to check the price of milk tea at Tibetan cafes and canteens. "O ja" is a compound of o (milk) plus ja (tea)

   Grammar Note

   "Chi-re" is the standard question form "what is it/how much." "Re" is an assertive auxiliary

8. ཆང་འཐུང་མི་ཤེས།

   Chang thung mi-she

   I cannot drink alcohol

   Usage

   Used to decline alcohol; pressing drinks on a guest is a Tibetan custom. "Chang" is the general word for alcoholic drink

   Grammar Note

   "Mi-she" is the negative ability form meaning "cannot." The verb "to drink" is thung spelled with the prefixed a-chung; the bare spelling means "short."

9. ཁོ་ཕི་གཅིག་གནང་རོགས།

   Kho-phi chig nang-rok

   One coffee please

   Usage

   Used to order coffee at cafes in urban areas like Lhasa. Coffee is available at tourist locations

   Grammar Note

   Kho phi is borrowed from English "coffee." Three others exist: kha phe from Chinese kāfēi, ja kop-pi, and tshig ja, "burnt tea."

10. འདི་ལས་མངར་མོ་ཞིག་འདུག

    Di-le ngar-mo zhig dug

    Is there a sweeter drink than this?

    Usage

    Used to say you would prefer something sweeter; Tibetan food is not generally sweet. "Sweet" is ngarmo.

    Grammar Note

    "Le" is a comparative postposition meaning "than." "Dug" is the evidential existential, here as a question. It ends in a bare ga, so no shad is written

11. ཆུ་ཚན།

    Chu tshen

    Hot water (boiled)

    Usage

    Use when asking for water that has been boiled. Chu tshen covers both naturally hot medicinal water and water deliberately boiled, so it is good Tibetan. Note that the same word also means a hot spring, so at a guesthouse it can be heard as a question about the bath; use it where drinking water is obviously meant, or fall back on chu tshapo yoepae

Browse all TravelPhrases languages