Body Parts

1. མགུ་ཏོ།

   Gu to

   Head

   Usage

   Show it at a clinic while pointing at your head; headaches are common at altitude here

2. སྐྱ།

   Kya

   Hair

   Usage

   Used at a barber or salon; the honorific form is དབུ་སྐྲ ("U tra")

3. གདོང་།

   Dong

   Face

   Usage

   Use it to show sunburn or a rash — the UV is fierce at this altitude

   Grammar Note

   The honorific is ཞལ ("Zhel"); it also means "front", the opposite of རྒྱབ

4. མིག་ཏོ།

   Mig to

   Eye

   Usage

   Use it for eye pain or something in your eye; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

5. རྣམ་ཅོ།

   Nam cho

   Ear

   Usage

   Useful when your ears hurt crossing a high pass; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

6. ལྷ་པ།

   Lha pa

   Nose

   Usage

   Use it for a nosebleed or blocked nose; the dry mountain air brings on nosebleeds

7. ཁ།

   Kha

   Mouth

   Usage

   Also useful when the chillies have burned your mouth. The same word means "language", "surface" and the rim of a vessel, so point at your mouth

   Grammar Note

   The honorific is ཞལ ("Zhel"). The "kha" in "Dzongkha" is this same word

8. མཆུ།

   Chu

   Lip

   Usage

   Show it at a pharmacy when the dry air has cracked your lips; upper lip ཡ་མཆུ, lower lip མ་མཆུ

9. སོ།

   So

   Tooth

   Usage

   Point at the sore tooth at the dentist; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

10. ལྕེ།

    Che

    Tongue

    Usage

    Use it for a burn or swelling, or when a doctor asks to see your tongue

11. མཁུར་ཚོས།

    Khur tsho

    Cheek

    Usage

    Use it to show a swollen cheek or where a toothache sits

    Grammar Note

    ཟ་ལྟབ ("Za tab") is a synonym

12. མ་མཁལ།

    Ma khal

    Chin / jaw

    Usage

    Use it if you hit your chin or your jaw will not open

13. སྐེ།

    Ke

    Neck

    Usage

    The visible neck; for pain when swallowing use ཨོལ་ལྐོག (throat)

    Grammar Note

    The nape is ལྟག་ཀོ ("Tag ko")

14. ཨོལ་ལྐོག།

    Oel kog

    Throat

    Usage

    The inside of the throat — use this for a sore throat; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

15. དཔུངམ།

    Pungm

    Shoulder

    Usage

    For soreness after carrying a heavy pack; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

16. ལག་ངར།

    Lag ngar

    Arm

    Usage

    The arm from shoulder to wrist; the hand itself is ལགཔ

17. ཀི་ལི།

    Ki li

    Elbow

    Usage

    Easily banged in a fall. A distinctly Bhutanese word, not the Tibetan གྲུ་མོ

18. ལགཔ།

    Lagp

    Hand

    Usage

    From palm to fingertips; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

19. མཛུབ་མོ།

    Dzub mo

    Finger

    Usage

    Use it to show a cut or a jammed finger; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

20. སེན་མོ།

    Sen mo

    Nail

    Usage

    Covers fingernails and toenails; useful when trekking has damaged a nail

    Grammar Note

    The same word covers an animal's claw

21. བྱང་ཁོག།

    Jang khog

    Chest

    Usage

    For breathlessness or chest pain at altitude — show it to a medic at once; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

22. ཕོཝ།

    Phow

    Stomach / belly

    Usage

    Dzongkha does not split the outer belly from the stomach organ, so point at the spot; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

23. རྒྱབ།

    Gyab

    Back

    Usage

    The back as a whole; for the lower back use སྐེདཔ. Same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

24. སྐེདཔ།

    Kep

    Waist / lower back

    Usage

    For lower back pain; also where the belt of the gho is tied. Same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

25. རྐངམ།

    Kangm

    Leg / foot

    Usage

    Dzongkha uses one word for leg and foot alike, so point at the spot; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

26. པུས་མོ།

    Pue mo

    Knee

    Usage

    Bhutan's steep descents are hard on knees; same spelling as in the Basic Nouns category

27. བོལ་ཚིགས།

    Bol tshig

    Ankle

    Usage

    Use it for a sprain on cobbles or a mountain path

28. པགས་ཀོ།

    Pag ko

    Skin

    Usage

    For a rash, sunburn or a leech bite

    Grammar Note

    ཀོཝ ("Kow") is a synonym; the same word covers fruit peel and animal hide

29. རུ་ཏོ།

    Ru to

    Bone

    Usage

    Use it when reporting a fracture; the everyday Bhutanese form, more common than the literary རུས་པ

30. ཁྲག།

    Thra

    Blood

    Usage

    Used when talking about bleeding or a blood test

31. དོན་ཧིང་།

    Doen hing

    Heart

    Usage

    Use it to declare a condition — worth saying before you go higher

    Grammar Note

    A distinctly Bhutanese form, different from Tibetan སྙིང

32. གློཝ།

    Low

    Lung

    Usage

    Used when discussing asthma or altitude sickness

    Grammar Note

    A contracted colloquial form of གློ་བ

33. མཆིན་པ།

    Chin pa

    Liver

    Usage

    Used when discussing a condition or medication; the colloquial form is མཆིནམ

34. མཁལ་མ།

    Khal ma

    Kidney

    Usage

    Used when discussing a condition or dialysis; མཁལ་རྡོག is a synonym

35. རྒྱུ་མ།

    Gyu ma

    Intestine

    Usage

    Used for diarrhoea or abdominal pain. The same word also means sausage, so point at your body

36. ཀླདཔ།

    Lep

    Brain

    Usage

    Used when discussing a scan after a head injury

    Grammar Note

    The colloquial form of ཀླད་པ; it also carries the sense of mental capacity, alongside རིག་པ

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