Post Office

1. དྲིན་ལམ་ཁང་གང་དུ་ཡོད།

   Drin-lam khang gang-du yod?

   Where is the post office?

   Usage

   Used to ask the location of the post office.

   Grammar Note

   "Drin-lam khang" = "postal building." The main post office in the TAR is in Lhasa. Tibet uses China's postal system (China Post).

2. འདི་ཉི་ཧོང་ལ་འཕྲིན་འཇལ་གཏོང་འདོད།

   Di Nyi-hong la trin-jal tong-dod

   I want to send this to Japan.

   Usage

   Used at the post office when sending mail or packages abroad.

   Grammar Note

   "Tong" means "to send/dispatch." International mail from Tibet goes through China Post. Expect longer transit times than from major Chinese cities.

3. ཏི་ཀ་སིའི་རིན་ཇི་ཙམ་རེད།

   Ti-ka-si'i rin ji-tsam re?

   How much does a stamp cost?

   Usage

   Used to ask the price of a postage stamp.

   Grammar Note

   A postage stamp is ཏི་ཀ་སི (ti ka si), a loanword from South Asian ṭikaṭ. The suffix "-'i" is the genitive. Note that ལྡེ་མིག means "key", not "stamp".

4. འཕྲིན་འཇལ་ཉིན་གྲངས་ཇི་ཙམ་ལ་སླེབས་ཀྱི་རེད།

   Trin-jal nyin-drang ji-tsam la leb-kyi re?

   How many days does mail delivery take?

   Usage

   Used to ask how long international mail delivery takes.

   Grammar Note

   The particle "la" marks the goal/arrival point. "Nyin-drang ji-tsam la" — "in how many days" — is the standard way to ask duration in Tibetan.

5. མགྱོགས་པའི་འཕྲིན་འཇལ་གཏོང་འདོད།

   Gyog-pe trin-jal tong-dod

   I want to send it by express mail.

   Usage

   Used when you need express mail service for urgent items.

   Grammar Note

   "Gyog-pe" is the genitive form of "gyog-pa" (fast) used as a modifier: "express/fast." Express mail from Tibet may still be slower than from mainland China.

6. འདིའི་ལྗིད་ཚད་ཇི་ཙམ་རེད།

   Di-i ji-tsed ji-tsam re?

   What is the weight of this?

   Usage

   Used to ask about the weight of a package to calculate postage.

   Grammar Note

   "Ji-tsed" = "weight-measure" — a compound of "ji" (heavy) + "tsed" (measure/amount). Tibetan commonly forms measurement words with "tsed/tsad."

7. སྒྲིག་ཞིབ་ཡིག་ཆ་བཀོལ་གནང་།

   Drig-zhib yig-cha kol-nang

   Please fill out the customs declaration form.

   Usage

   Used when asked to complete a customs declaration for international parcels.

   Grammar Note

   "Kol-nang" is a polite honorific command: "please use/fill out." Used by officials at the post office.

8. གནས་ཐིག་ས་བཀོད་རོགས།

   Ne-thig sa-kod rok

   Please write the address.

   Usage

   Used to ask someone to write an address on a package or envelope.

   Grammar Note

   "Ne-thig" means "address" (literally "residence line"). Written addresses in Tibet typically appear in both Tibetan and Chinese.

9. འཕྲིན་འཇལ་སྡོད་གནས་སུ་སླེབས་སོང་།

   Trin-jal dod-ne leb-song

   The letter arrived at the address.

   Usage

   Used to confirm that a letter or package has been delivered.

   Grammar Note

   "Song" is the completive auxiliary marking a change of state — the arrival just happened. "Dod-ne" = "staying-place," i.e., home address.

10. འཕྲིན་འཇལ་ཕེབས་མ་སོང་།

    Trin-jal pheb-ma-song

    The letter has not yet arrived.

    Usage

    Used when waiting for a letter or package that has not yet arrived.

    Grammar Note

    "Ma-song" is the negative completive: "has not yet [occurred]." "Ma" negates + "song" (completive auxiliary). A common pattern for "not yet" in Tibetan.

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