Tibetan Place Names

Trying to understand place names across the Tibetan Plateau can often be difficult. Nearly every town has both a Tibetan name and a Chinese name (ex. Shigatse/Rikaze and Jyekundo/Yushu) and some places even have a Mongolian name (ex. Golmud and Kokonor). In this post I will try and give the Tibetan and Chinese name for various places across the Tibetan world (this is NOT an exhaustive list) in both Chinese characters, Tibetan script and the roman script that is most often used for each place. With this, it should make traveling in Tibet a little easier, especially for those who are traveling independently through the Amdo and Kham regions. Public buses across the Tibetan Plateau usually list the destination in both Chinese characters and in Tibetan script. I have done a lot of research on this, but there still may be a few mistakes, particularly with the Tibetan script. If you read Tibetan and notice a mistake, please let me know and I will look into it more and correct it if necessary. Most of these place names and their spellings in "English" are based on either the Lhasa or Kham pronunciation. Speakers of Amdo (roughly 20% to 25% of the total Tibetan population) will pronounce many (if not most) of these place names differently.

Places in the Lhasa Area

Tibet Autonomous Region   Tibetan: བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས་  Chinese: 西藏自治区/Xīzàng Zìzhìqū

Lhasa   Tibetan: ལྷ་ས་   Chinese: 拉萨/Lā Sà

Barkhor   Tibetan: བར་སྐོར་   Chinese: 八廓/Bā Kuò

Jokhang Temple   Tibetan: ཇོ་ཁང་   Chinese: 大昭寺/Dà Zhāo Sì

Potala Palace   Tibetan: པོ་ཏ་ལ་   Chinese: 布达拉宫/Bù Dă Lā Gōng

Sera Monastery   Tibetan: སེ་ར་   Chinese: 色拉寺/Sè Lā Sì

Drepung Monastery   Tibetan: འབྲས་སྤུངས་   Chinese: 哲蚌寺/Zhé Bàng Sì

Ganden Monastery   Tibetan: དགའ་ལྡན་   Chinese: 甘丹寺/Gān Dān Sì

Norbulinka   Tibetan: ནོར་བུ་གླིང་ཁ་   Chinese: 罗布林卡/Luó Bù Lín Kă

Tsetang   Tibetan: རྩེ་ཐང་   Chinese: 泽当/Zé Dāng

Nam Tso   Tibetan: གནམ་མཚོ་   Chinese: 纳木错/Nà Mù Cuò

Samye Monastery   Tibetan: བསམ་ཡས་་   Chinese: 桑耶/Sāng Yē

Nechung Monastery   Tibetan: གནས་ཆུང་   Chinese: 乃穹寺/Năi Qióng Sì

Damxung   Tibetan: འདམ་གཞུང་   Chinese: 当雄/Dāng Xióng

Lhunzhub   Tibetan: ལྷུན་གྲུབ་   Chinese: 林周/ Lín Zhōu

Meldrogongkar   Tibetan: མལ་གྲོ་གུང་དཀར་   Chinese: 墨竹工卡/Mòzhú Gōngkǎ

Shigatse/Rikaze Prefecture

Shigatse   Tibetan: གཞི་ཀ་རྩེ་   Chinese: 日喀则/Rì Kā Zé

Tashilhunpo Monastery   Tibetan: བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་   Chinese: 扎什伦布寺/Zhāshílúnbù Sì

Gyantse    Tibetan: རྒྱལ་རྩེ་   Chinese: 江孜/Jiāng Zī

Lhatse    Tibetan: ལྷ་རྩེ་   Chinese: 拉孜/Lā Zí

Sakya   Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་   Chinese: 萨迦/Sà Jiā

Tingri    Tibetan: ཏིང་རི་   Chinese: 定日/Dìng Rì

Nyalam   Tibetan: གཉའ་ལམ་   Chinese: 聂拉木/ Niè Lā Mù

Nagchu/Naqu Prefecture

Nagchu   Tibetan: ནག་ཆུ་   Chinese: 那曲/Nà Qū 

Amdo   Tibetan: ཨ་མདོ་   Chinese: 安多/Ānduō

Lhari   Tibetan: ལྷ་རི་   Chinese: 嘉黎/Jiā Lí

Biru   Tibetan: འབྲི་རུ   Chinese: 比如/Bǐ Rú

Nyima   Tibetan: ཉི་མ   Chinese: 尼玛/Ní Mǎ

Bachen    Tibetan: སྦྲ་ཆེན་   Chinese: 巴青/Bā Qīng

Sog    Tibetan: སོག་   Chinese: 索/Suǒ

Nyanrong   Tibetan: གཉན་རོང་   Chinese: 聂荣/Niè Róng

Xainza   Tibetan: ཤན་རྩ་   Chinese: 申扎/Shēn Zhā

Chamdo/Changdu Prefecture

Chamdo   Tibetan: ཆབ་མདོ་   Chinese: 昌都/ Chāng Dū

Riwoche   Tibetan: རི་བོ་ཆེ་   Chinese: 类乌齐/ Lèi Wū Qí

Jomda   Tibetan: འཇོ་མདའ་   Chinese: 江达/ Jiāng Dá

Dengchen   Tibetan: སྟེང་ཆེན་   Chinese: 丁青/ Dīng Qīng

Markham   Tibetan: སྨར་ཁམས་   Chinese: 芒康/ Máng Kāng

Gonjo   Tibetan: གོ་འཇོ་   Chinese: 贡觉/ Gòng Jué

Lhoka/Shannan Prefecture

Nedong   Tibetan: སྣེ་གདོང་   Chinese: 乃东/ Nǎi Dōng

Gonggar   Tibetan: གོང་དཀར་   Chinese: 贡嘎/Gòng Gā

Lhozhag   Tibetan: ལྷོ་བྲག་   Chinese: 洛扎/Luò Zhā

Nangartse   Tibetan: སྣ་དཀར་རྩེ་   Chinese: 浪卡子/ Làng Kǎ Zǐ

Lhuntse   Tibetan: ལྷུན་རྩེ་   Chinese: 隆子/ Lóng Zǐ

Sangri   Tibetan: ཟངས་རི་   Chinese: 桑日/ Sāng Rì

Nyingtri/Linzhi Prefecture

Nyingtri   Tibetan: ཉིང་ཁྲི་ས་   Chinese: 林芝/Lín Zhī

Gongbogyamda   Tibetan: ཀོང་པོ་རྒྱ་མདའ་   Chinese: 布江达/ Gōng Bù Jiāng Dá

Medog   Tibetan: མེ་ཏོག་   Chinese: 墨脱/ Mò Tuō

Bomi   Tibetan: སྤོ་མེས་   Chinese: 波密/ Bō Mì

Nang   Tibetan: སྣང་   Chinese: 朗/ Lǎng

Ngari/Ali Prefecture

Gar   Tibetan: སྒར་   Chinese: 噶尔/ Gá'ěr

Burang   Tibetan: སྤུ་ཧྲེང་   Chinese: 普兰/ Pǔ Lán

Zanda   Tibetan: རྩ་མདའ་   Chinese: 札达/ Zhá Dá 

Rutog   Tibetan: རུ་ཐོག་   Chinese: 日土/ Rì Tǔ 

Gertse   Tibetan: སྒེར་རྩེ་   Chinese: 改则/ Gǎi Zé

Tibetan Prefectures in Qinghai

Xining Area

Silang   Tibetan: ཟི་ལིང་   Chinese: 西宁/Xī Níng

Tsongkhar   Tibetan: སྟོང་སྐོར་   Chinese: 湟源/ Huáng Yuán

Rushar   Tibetan: རུ་ཤར་   Chinese: 湟中/ Huáng Zhōng

Serkog   Tibetan: གསེར་ཁོག   Chinese: 大通/Dà Tōng

Haibei/Tsobyang Prefecture

Dola   Tibetan: མདོ་ལ་   Chinese: 祁连/ Qí Lián 

Gangtsa   Tibetan: རྐང་ཚ་   Chinese: 刚察/ Gāng Chá

Simnyi   Tibetan: སེམས་ཉིད   Chinese: 门源/Mén Yuán

Dabzhi   Tibetan: མདའ་བཞི་   Chinese: 海晏/ Hǎi Yàn

Qinghai Lake/Kokonor/Tso Ngon  Tibetan: མཚོ་སྔོན་  Chinese: 青海湖/Qīnghăi Hú

Hainan/Tsolho Prefecture

Chabcha   Tibetan: ཆབ་ཆ་   Chinese: 共和/ Gòng Hé

Triga   Tibetan: ཁྲི་ག་   Chinese: 贵德/ Guì Dé

Mangra   Tibetan: མང་ར་   Chinese: 贵南/ Guì Nán

Gawasumdo   Tibetan: གད་པ་སུམ་མདོ་   Chinese: 同德/ Tong Dé

Tsigorthang  Tibetan: རྩི་གོར་ཐང་   Chinese: 兴海/ Xìng Hǎi

Huangnan/Malho Prefecture:

Rebkong   Tibetan: རེབ་གོངར་   Chinese: 同仁/ Tóng Rén

Tsekog   Tibetan: རྩེ་ཁོག་   Chinese: 泽库/ Zé Kù

Jiantsa   Tibetan: གཅན་ཚ་   Chinese: 尖扎/ Jiān Zhā

Guoluo/Golog Prefecture

Machen   Tibetan: རྨ་ཆེན་   Chinese: 玛沁/ Mǎ Qìn

Mado   Tibetan: རྨ་སྟོད   Chinese: 玛多/ Mǎ Duō 

Darlag   Tibetan: དར་ལག་   Chinese: 达日/ Dá Rì

Jigdril   Tibetan:གཅིག་སྒྲིལ་   Chinese: 久治/Jiǔ Zhì 

Gabde   Tibetan: དགའ་བདེ   Chinese: 甘德/ Gān Dé

Badma   Tibetan: པད་མ་   Chinese: 班玛/ Bān Mǎ

Yushu Prefecture

Jyekundo   Tibetan: སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ་   Chinese: 玉树/ Yù Shù

Nangchen   Tibetan: ནང་ཆེན་   Chinese: 囊谦/ Náng Qiān

Chende   Tibetan: ཁྲི་འདུ་   Chinese: 称多/ Chèng Duō 

Drido   Tibetan: འབྲི་སྟོད་   Chinese: 治多/ Zhì Duō

Dzado   Tibetan: རྫ་སྟོད་   Chinese: 杂多/ Zá Duō

Chumarleb   Tibetan: ཆུ་དམར་ལེབ་  Chinese: 曲麻莱/ Qǔ Má Lái 

Golmud/Gormo   Tibetan: གོར་མོ།   Chinese: 格尔木/ Gé’ěrmù (Golmud is in Haixi and not Yushu)

Tibetan Prefectures in Sichuan

Ganzi/Garze Prefecture

Dartsedo   Tibetan: དར་རྩེ་མདོ།   Chinese: 康定/ Kāng Dìng

Garze   Tibetan: དཀར་མཛེས།   Chinese: 甘孜/ Gān Zī 

Sertar   Tibetan: གསེར་ཐར།   Chinese: 色达/ Sè Dá

Sershul   Tibetan: སེར་ཤུལ།   Chinese: 石渠/ Shí Qú

Lithang   Tibetan: ལི་ཐང།   Chinese: 理塘/ Lǐ Táng

Bathang   Tibetan: འབའ་ཐང།   Chinese: 巴塘/ Bā Táng

Dege   Tibetan: སྡེ་དགེ།   Chinese: 德格/ Dé Gé 

Nyagrong   Tibetan: ཉག་རོང།   Chinese: 新龙/ Xīn Lóng

Dabba   Tibetan: འདབ་པ།   Chinese: 稻城/ Dào Chéng

Derong   Tibetan: སྡེ་རོང།   Chinese: 得荣/ Dé Róng

Aba/Ngawa Prefecture

Barkham   Tibetan: འབར་ཁམས།   Chinese: 马尔康 Mǎ’ěr Kāng

Ngawa   Tibetan: རྔ་བ།   Chinese: 阿坝/ Ā Bà

Zoige   Tibetan: མཛོད་དགེ།   Chinese: 若尔盖/ Ruò’ěr Gài

Dzamthang   Tibetan: འཛམ་ཐང།   Chinese: 壤塘/ Rǎng Táng

Comments

[Siladitya]

I want to go Tibet.Its a nice place.
BPO work from home

[Losang]

Thanks Dava. I will look more into the spelling of Samye. If you see anything else that doesn't look right, please let me know.

[Dava]

All the Tibetan spellings look good to me, with the one exception of Bsam-ye, which has to be Bsam-yas. (I'm using a Mac, so the letters don't stack.) The yas syllable is a rather odd one, true, but you do find it with very likely the same meaning in the word mtha'-yas. It means 'way up beyond' (thought or horizons, as the case may be).