Pharmacy & Health

1. མགོ་ན་གསོ་སྨན་ཡོད་པས།

   Go na so men yö pe?

   Do you have headache medicine?

   Usage

   Ask for headache medicine in Tibetan at a pharmacy

   Grammar Note

   Tibetan is not tonal but has rich prefix/suffix systems. "So men" means therapeutic medicine

2. པོ་ལོག་གི་གསོ་སྨན་དགོས།

   Po lok gi so men gö

   I need stomach medicine

   Usage

   Use when you need stomach medicine

   Grammar Note

   "Gö" means "need/require" in Tibetan

3. བཤལ་ནད་ཀྱི་གསོ་སྨན་དགོས།

   Shel ne kyi so men gö

   I need anti-diarrhea medicine

   Usage

   Ask for anti-diarrhea medicine

   Grammar Note

   Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa) has a traditional system used alongside modern medicine. "Diarrhea" is བཤལ་ནད; ལྷག་པ means "Wednesday" and must not be used here

4. ང་ལ་དྲོད་ཚད་ཡོད།

   Nga la drö tse yö

   I have a fever

   Usage

   Tell the pharmacist you have a fever

   Grammar Note

   "Yö" is the Tibetan existential verb meaning "have/exist"

5. ང་ལ་སྒག་པ་ཡོད།

   Nga la gak pa yö

   I have an allergy

   Usage

   Inform the pharmacist about your allergy

   Grammar Note

   "Gak pa" means allergy/sensitivity in Tibetan

6. རྨ་སྦྲུམ་དགོས།

   Ma drum gö

   I need bandages/plasters

   Usage

   Ask for bandages or plasters at a pharmacy

   Grammar Note

   "Ma" (wound) + "drum" (wrap) compound. Modern: "lip gtan" (adhesive strip)

7. སྲིན་བུ་བཀག་ཐབས་དགོས།

   Sin bu kak tap gö

   I need insect repellent

   Usage

   Ask for insect repellent at a pharmacy

   Grammar Note

   "Sin bu" means insect/bug in Tibetan

8. ཉི་སྲུང་གི་སྨན་དགོས།

   Nyi sung gi men gö

   I need sunscreen

   Usage

   Ask for sunscreen at a pharmacy

   Grammar Note

   The Tibetan plateau has intense UV radiation (4000m+ altitude), making sunscreen essential

9. གསོ་སྨན་འདི་ཇི་ལྟར་ཟ་དགོས།

   So men di ji tar za gö?

   How do I take this medicine?

   Usage

   Ask the pharmacist how to take the medicine

   Grammar Note

   "Ji tar" means "how" in Tibetan

10. གསོ་ཡིག་དགོས་སམ།

    So yik gö sam?

    Do I need a prescription?

    Usage

    Check if a prescription is needed

    Grammar Note

    "So yik" = treatment document (prescription). "Sam" is a question particle

11. བཤལ་སྨན་གཅིག་གནང་རོགས།

    Shel men chig nang rok

    A laxative, please

    Usage

    Ask for a laxative at a pharmacy. བཤལ་སྨན means laxative or purgative

    Grammar Note

    "X-chig nang-rok" (please give me one X) is the same request frame as the drink cards such as "Mar ja chig nang rok". བཤལ་སྨན combines བཤལ (to flow out, to cleanse, as in བཤལ་ནད, diarrhea) with སྨན (medicine) and means a laxative, not an anti-diarrheal.

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