Indulgences

1. རྡོག་མ།

   Dog ma

   Doma (areca nut for chewing)

   Usage

   The commonest indulgence in Bhutan: areca nut wrapped in a betel leaf (པ་ནེ) with slaked lime, then chewed. Offering and sharing it works almost as a greeting — office staff and drivers alike chew it. ⚠ It turns the saliva red; you spit rather than swallow. Markets sell the leaf and the nut side by side

   Grammar Note

   རྡོག་མ means "betel nut"; the རྡོག་མ of "doma-pani" is written the same way. A proverb: ཟས་རྡོག་མ་པ་ནེ་ཙུ་ནེ་གསུམ། གཅིག་མེདན་ གཉིས་ཀྱི་ལཱ་སྟོང་ཆག — "food, areca, betel leaf and lime: lacking one, the work of the other two comes to nothing"

2. པ་ནེ།

   Pa ne

   Pani (betel leaf)

   Usage

   The leaf that wraps the doma. In Bhutan the pair is named together as "doma-pani" (རྡོག་མ་པ་ནེ). It will not grow at altitude, so it comes up from the south or from India — markets keep the bundles wrapped in damp cloth

   Grammar Note

   DDC resolves it in both directions: "betel" → པ་ནེ and པ་ནེ → "betel"

3. ཏམ་ཁུ།

   Tam khu

   Tobacco

   Usage

   🔴 In 2004 Bhutan became the first country in the world to ban tobacco sales nationwide. A 2021 amendment made sales legal again, but smoking in public places remains prohibited and is punishable. Tobacco you bring in must be declared and taxed, and you may be asked to show the receipt. ⚠ Assume hotel rooms, temple precincts and open squares are all non-smoking, and always ask before lighting up

   Grammar Note

   ཏམ་ཁུ means "tobacco" (literally "the name of the intoxicant tobacco"). Typical uses: ཏམ་ཁུ་མ་འཐུང ("do not smoke") and ཏམ་ཁུ་འཐུངས་པ་ཅིན་ གློ་ནད་འཐོབ་འོང ("if you smoke you may get lung disease") — both are anti-smoking sentences

4. ཏམ་ཁུ་དཀྱུ་རྡོག།

   Tam khu kyu dog

   Cigarette

   Usage

   🔴 Everything said of leaf tobacco (ཏམ་ཁུ) applies here. Sales were outright illegal before 2021, so an older shopkeeper may simply refuse. ⚠ Do not smoke or even carry them inside a monastery or dzong precinct, and do not drop butts in the street — that too can be penalised

   Grammar Note

   The equivalent of English "cigarette". Shopkeepers also use ཐ་མག, shared with Tibetan

5. ཨ་རག།

   A rag

   Ara (local distilled spirit)

   Usage

   A strong home-distilled spirit made from fermented rice, maize or wheat. It is the drink poured at celebrations (དགའ་སྟོན) and weddings; the vessel is a wooden "palang". ⚠ It is sometimes set out as an offering at rites and in shrine rooms — do not help yourself

   Grammar Note

   The English gloss is "alcohol, booze, drink, liquor". It is usually romanised "ara" or "arra"

6. ཆང་།

   Chang

   Chang (brewed grain alcohol)

   Usage

   The brewed, undistilled drink — cloudier and weaker than ara. Both ara and chang can be made from the buckwheat ཀར. This is usually what appears when you are invited into a farmhouse

   Grammar Note

   The English gloss is "alcohol, booze, brew, drink, liquor"; for "alcohol", ཨ་རག and ཆང are both used. ⚠ Because it ends in ང, a tsheg is written before the shad (ཆང་།)

7. སིང་ཆང་།

   Sing chang

   Singchang (yeast-fermented grain drink)

   Usage

   Three drinks are often named together — ara, bangchang and singchang. This is the family poured at festivals. It ranges from freshly made and still sweet to older and distinctly sour

   Grammar Note

   A "drink made from fermented grains by adding yeast"; it is also used for "wine"

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