Animals

1. གཡག།

   Yak

   Yak

   Usage

   Herded on pastures above 3,000 m; keep your distance — they can charge

   Grammar Note

   ལ་ནོར (highland livestock) splits into male གཡག and female འབྱི; English "yak" covers both

2. འབྱི།

   Ji

   Female yak

   Usage

   Yak cheese and butter come from her milk; you hear the word at markets

3. བ།

   Ba

   Cow

   Usage

   Common in villages and on roads; in Bhutan you wait rather than hurry a cow off the road

4. མ་ཧེ།

   Ma he

   Buffalo

   Usage

   Seen on farms in the southern lowlands, for example around Phuentsholing

5. ར།

   Ra

   Goat

   Usage

   Free-grazing on village slopes; the same spelling also means "horn"

6. ལུག།

   Lug

   Sheep

   Usage

   Kept by highland herders; the word comes up around woollen weaving

7. རྟ།

   Ta

   Horse

   Usage

   You can ride part way up to Taktsang (Tiger's Nest); also used to carry trekking loads

8. དྲེལ།

   Drel

   Mule

   Usage

   The workhorse of the mountain trails; when one passes, stand on the inside of the path, not the drop side

   Grammar Note

   Pack mules are ཁལ་དྲེལ and riding mules are བཞོན་དྲེལ

9. ཕགཔ།

   Phagp

   Pig

   Usage

   Kept in villages; the word turns up in the pork dish "phag sha"

10. རོ་ཁྱི།

    Ro khi

    Dog

    Usage

    Street dogs bark through the night in the towns. In a Buddhist country you keep your distance rather than drive them off

    Grammar Note

    ཁྱི ("khi") alone also means dog; རོ་ཁྱི is the everyday form

11. བྱི་ལི།

    Bi li

    Cat

    Usage

    Found around farms and shops, though far fewer than dogs

12. བྱམོ།

    Jam

    Chicken / hen

    Usage

    Kept in villages; chicken meat is བྱ་ཤ ("ja sha") on menus

13. བྱ།

    Ja

    Bird

    Usage

    Birds in general; Bhutan is a well-known birdwatching destination

14. ཨོ་རོག།

    O rog

    Raven (national bird)

    Usage

    Bhutan's national bird, and the shape of the Raven Crown worn by the King — do not speak ill of it

    Grammar Note

    A synonym is བྱ་རོག; it is also called "Bhutan's national bird"

15. ཨོ་ལ།

    O la

    Crow

    Usage

    Common in the towns; a different bird from the national raven, ཨོ་རོག

16. གླངམོ་ཆེ།

    Langmo che

    Elephant

    Usage

    Wild in the southern lowland parks such as Royal Manas; never in the high country

17. སྟག།

    Tag

    Tiger

    Usage

    Lives in the southern reserves. The "tag" in Taktsang (སྟག་ཚང, "tiger's nest") near Paro is this word

18. དོམ།

    Dom

    Bear

    Usage

    Asiatic black bears live in the mid-altitude forest — do not push into thick brush alone

19. སྤྱ།

    Cha

    Monkey

    Usage

    Seen along roads and around temples; do not approach with food in your hand

20. སྦུལ།

    Bul

    Snake

    Usage

    Venomous species occur in the southern lowlands; you will hardly see one high up

21. ཉ།

    Nya

    Fish

    Usage

    They live in the rivers, but fishing is restricted here on religious grounds; the dish is ཉ་ཤ ("nya sha")

22. སྦལཔ།

    Balp

    Frog

    Usage

    Calling from the paddies and channels through the monsoon

23. གཟན་དོམ།

    Zen dom

    Mosquito

    Usage

    A problem in the southern lowlands; barely present in Thimphu or Paro above 2,000 m

24. སྦྱངམ།

    Jangm

    Fly

    Usage

    Around markets and food stalls; comes up when covering food

25. གྱོག་མོ།

    Gyog mo

    Ant

    Usage

    They find food left out in a room

26. གསེར་སྦྱང་།

    Ser jang

    Bee

    Usage

    Literally "golden insect"; Bhutanese honey is sold as a souvenir

27. པདཔ།

    Pep

    Leech

    Usage

    They latch on during monsoon forest treks from June to September; do not rip one off — use salt or repellent

28. བྱི་ཙི།

    Bi tsi

    Mouse / rat

    Usage

    Dzongkha does not split mouse from rat; show it at reception if one turns up in your lodging

Browse all TravelPhrases languages