ལྷ་ས

Tibetan

Etymology

Inherited from Old Tibetan ར་ས (ra sa), from ར (ra, “goat”) or ར (ra, “enclosure”) + ས (sa, “place, location”), literally "goat's place" or "fortified city". The ra in Old Tibetan irregularly developed into lha in the modern form, possibly by association with ལྷ (lha, “god, deity”), i.e. literally "place of gods" or "Holy Land".

Pronunciation

• Old Tibetan: /*l̥a.sa/
• Lhasa: /ɬɛː˥˥.sa˥˥/

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• Old Tibetan:
  • IPA^(key): /*l̥a.sa/ (reconstructed)
• Ü-Tsang
  • Tibetan pinyin: lhae^f-sa^f
  • (Lhasa) IPA^(key): /ɬɛː˥˥.sa˥˥/

Proper noun

ལྷ་ས • (lha sa)

1. Lhasa

Derived terms

• ལྷ་ས་བ (lha sa ba)