Indulgences

1. ཆང་།

   Chang

   Chang (barley beer)

   Usage

   Barley beer. It is made from barley as a rule but not only from barley — some brew barley mixed with wheat — and it is one of the things Tibetan life cannot do without, a Tibetan craft rather than an import. Do not offer it to monks or nuns, and remember that at altitude it hits fast and makes altitude sickness worse

2. ཨ་རག

   A rag

   Arag (distilled liquor)

   Usage

   It means alcohol or liquor, especially arag, and goes back to Arabic ʿaraq. It is stronger than chang, and its strength is rarely stated, so watch the quantity when it is pressed on you

3. རྒུན་ཆང་།

   Gün chang

   Wine

   Usage

   A compound of gün (grape) and chang (alcohol), meaning "wine, grape wine"

4. སྦི་རག

   Bi rag

   Beer

   Usage

   It means "beer." It covers modern brewery beer, while chang stays with the traditional barley brew

5. ཆང་ཁང་།

   Chang khang

   Pub, bar

   Usage

   Chang (alcohol) plus khang (house), meaning "pub." Use it to read a sign or to ask where one is

6. ཐ་མག

   Tha mag

   Cigarette, tobacco

   Usage

   It means "cigarette" and goes back through Mongolian tamkhi to Persian and Arabic; Dzongkha and Mongolian share the same shape. Smoking is not allowed inside monastery grounds or on the pilgrimage circuits — the no-smoking sign reads thamak then michok — and at this altitude it costs you more breath than it does at sea level

7. བཞེས་ཐག

   Zhe thag

   Cigarette (polite word)

   Usage

   It means "cigarette" and is the honorific counterpart of thamak. The first element zhe is the honorific verb for taking or consuming, so this is the form to use when offering to, or asking about, someone senior

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