Technical Note

The transliteration systems for Tibetan words is that devised by Turrell Wylie¹; it has been modified slightly in that the first pronounced letter in the names of persons and texts is capitalized. The transliteration of Tibetan words appears in parenthetical citations, notes, glossary, and bibliography. Since it is impossible for non-Tibetan speakers to pronounce Tibetan words correctly using a transliteration system because of the number of unpronounced letters in Tibetan, a revised version of the phonetic transcription system devised by Jeffrey Hopkins² is used. This adaptation of the Hopkins system facilitates accurate pronounciation of the Lhasan dialect and is used throughout the text wherever Tibetan names occur. Tonal markers above consonants that are used in the Hopkins system have been omitted in the body of this text.

The conversion table from transliteration to “phonetics” is as follows, with the transliterated form on the left of each column and the phonetic form on the right. Lines above letters indicate that the tone is high, with a sharp and short pronunciation:

The phonetic system is derived by using the phonetic columns above and substituting k and p for g and b in the suffix position; prefixes, extra suffixes, and unpronounced superscriptions, subscriptions, and suffixes do not appear in the phonetic form of the word. For vowels, “a” indicates the vowel sound of “opt”; “i” indicates the sound of “it” (with the phonetic suffixes k, n, p, and m) or “eat” (with the phonetic suffixes ng, r, and l and with the unpronounced transliterated suffixes d, ’a, and s); “u” indicates the vowel sound of “soon”; “ay” indicates the vowel sound of “bake”; “o” indicates the vowel sound of “boat”; and “ö” is pronounced as in German. The hyphens between syllables are retained in the phonetic form so that the beginning and end of the syllables can be easily distinguished.

The names of Tibetan and Mongolians who live in or have published in the West are spelled as they spell them. Aside from these, Tibetan names have been rendered in the system given above in order to bring their pronunciation in accord with the actual spoken Tibetan in the Lhasan dialect, with two exceptions: In deference to common usage, Tsong-kha-pa, actually pronounced zong-ka-a, is retained in its transliterated form. Also, the title “Geshe” (dGe-bshes), which in this system would appear as Ge-hay, has not been changed. The transliterated form of each name is given in parentheses after the first occurrence.

Sanskrit equivalents to Tibetan terms are given wherever possible; an asterisk before an entry indicates a reconstruction of the Sanskrit.

With the first occurrence of each Indian title, the Sanskrit is given, if available. The full Sanskrit and Tibetan titles are found in the bibliography, which is arranged alphabetically according to the English titles of sutras and according to the phonetic transcription of authors of Tibetan works. Authors’ dates, when available, appear in the bibliography. Throughout the text, the titles of all Sanskrit and Tibetan works have been translated into English. This does not imply that the work itself has been translated into English.