མེ་ཏོག་ལྡུམ་ར་: a collection of common flower names in Tibetan

In the past few months, I have spoken with many Tibetans to collect names of common flowers. Many elders and Tibetans from Tibet were delighted to engage in these conversations. Listening to them describe the colors, shapes and even the timing of different blossoms, it is clear that people in Tibet have great appreciation for flowers.

Exile Tibetans, however, can barely identify more than three or four flowers. Perhaps this is because traditional ecological knowledge is less relevant in foreign environments. Additionally, while names of vegetables, fruits and animals are taught in school textbooks, flower names are generally omitted. That exile Tibetans grow up not knowing flower names is unfortunate not only for loss of language but also for lacking appreciation for nature's most delightful gift--flowers. I hope this collection of flower names will help our people, particularly children, identify flowers in their mother tongue.

I am grateful to all those who spoke to me about flowers, including Ugyen Tsephel-la for cross checking flower names, and to the many photographers who share photos through (flickr.com) the Creative Commons license. I trust the use of some of these photos in this educational booklet is permissible. The soundtrack for this video is the song 'Khawe Metok' (Snow Flower) by Dolma Kyab

-Tashi Tsering
Mussoorie, India
November 25, 2009

Category:

Education

Tags:

• himalaya
• tibet
• tibetans
• flower
• language
• nature
• common

[WheelerRobyn]

LOVE this song!! Who is the singer? The images are very beautiful. Love this site.

[ikhamo]

5/5