Vehicles

1. མོ་ཊ།

   Mo ta

   Car / bus (colloquial)

   Usage

   Borrowed from English "motor" and the commonest everyday word, covering both cars and buses. "Mo-ta di ga-par dro-gi re?" = where does this one go?

2. རླངས་འཁོར།

   Lang khor

   Motor vehicle (standard term)

   Usage

   Literally "steam wheel"; the form used in writing and on signs. In speech, mo ta sounds more natural

3. ཇིབ།

   Jib

   Jeep / 4WD

   Usage

   Borrowed from English. The workhorse where the tarmac ends; usually hired with a driver for several days at a time

4. མེ་འཁོར།

   Me khor

   Train

   Usage

   Literally "fire wheel". The Qinghai-Tibet line is the world's highest railway and the carriages carry oxygen outlets; arriving by train gives your body more time to adjust than flying

5. གནམ་གྲུ།

   Nam dru

   Airplane

   Usage

   Literally "sky boat". Flying straight up from the lowlands invites altitude sickness, so rest rather than sightsee on arrival day

6. རྐང་འཁོར།

   Kang khor

   Bicycle

   Usage

   Literally "foot wheel". At Lhasa's 3,600 m you run out of breath far sooner than at sea level

7. གྲུ།

   Dru

   Boat

   Usage

   The boat used for river and lake crossings; the same word sits inside nam dru, "sky boat", for an aeroplane

8. ཀོ་གྲུ།

   Ko dru

   Hide coracle

   Usage

   Literally "hide boat": a round craft of skins stretched over a wooden frame, long used to cross the Yarlung Tsangpo and still found at some crossings

Browse all TravelPhrases languages