tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post7762471673009079971..comments2024-03-22T14:47:42.501+02:00Comments on Tibeto-logic: Magic Water?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-53729471651388764672018-09-12T14:32:39.722+03:002018-09-12T14:32:39.722+03:00Oh my, look at this page about Tibet Water. If yo...Oh my, look at this page about Tibet Water. If you think about it, they're reaping the profits from global warming, as if Tibet's shrinking glaciers are their pot of gold.<br /><br />http://www.twr1115.net/pages/corporate_profileDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-86101140781324223552018-09-12T14:24:04.166+03:002018-09-12T14:24:04.166+03:00Look here for some interesting news about how Live...Look here for some interesting news about how Liverpool soccer team decided not to help Sunny Wong and his "Tibet Water" with its advertising campaign:<br /><br />https://www.tibetsun.com/news/2018/09/11/liverpool-football-club-drops-controversial-deal-with-tibet-water<br /><br />Liverpool! Liverpool!<br />How much more will we admire you<br />for this victory over Tibetsploitation.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-29767163677023305132018-03-21T13:40:31.937+02:002018-03-21T13:40:31.937+02:00Oh, and yet another page of interest, with illustr...Oh, and yet another page of interest, with illustrations of labels on bottles:<br /><br />http://www.meltdownintibet.com/f_icebox.htmDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-51062973861872766032018-03-21T12:10:46.008+02:002018-03-21T12:10:46.008+02:00There's a new article about the Tibet-sourced ...There's a new article about the Tibet-sourced bottled water industry here:<br />http://www.tibetanjournal.com/tibets-water-sold-bottles-not-good/Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-58495700158336121152016-10-23T18:11:48.837+03:002016-10-23T18:11:48.837+03:00Dear J., The website you quote seems to be emphasi...Dear J., The website you quote seems to be emphasizing the reason the water ("divine water") should be regarded as pure and unpolluted: [1] because it's north of the main Himalayan range, [2] because it's at a height of 5127 meters and [3] 50 kilometers distant from the town of Gam-pa Rdzong, and [4] it is surrounded by ice and glacier mountains. <br /><br />Anyway, I don't believe the 'joke' on me requires any actual impurity in the water. It's the name of Chorten Nyima itself that provokes the association with incest, regardless of the exact water source, which as you point out could be from anywhere within the very large area. I hope you weren't thinking it was in my mind to insist that there is something 'dirty' about water from this extremely holy place. Our usual ideas about pollution (substances that might be polluting to us) probably don't always apply to holy places.<br />Yours, DDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-43687435719760173392016-10-02T22:57:16.104+03:002016-10-02T22:57:16.104+03:00For what it's worth, some PRC Tibetan-language...For what it's worth, some PRC Tibetan-language pages mention the Chorten Nyima water, <a href="http://www.tibetgov.cn/74gk/rkz/gb/201412/t20141211_35183.html" rel="nofollow">this one</a> for example:<br /><br />གམ་པ་རྫོང་མཆོད་རྟེན་ཉི་མ་བོད་ལྗོངས་ལྷ་ཆུའི་ཆུ་མིག་རི་བོ་ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡའི་དབུས་རྒྱུད་བྱང་འདབས་སུ་ཡོད། ས་བབ་མཐོ་ཚད་སྨི་5128ཟིན་པ་དང་གམ་པ་རྫོང་གྲོང་བར་སྤྱི་ལེ་50ཡོད། མཐའ་བཞི་འཁྱགས་རོམ་དང་གངས་རིས་བསྐོར་བས་སྦགས་བཙོག་གི་རྒྱུ་རྐྱེན་གང་ཡང་མེད།Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-11659485217464621782016-10-02T22:55:43.288+03:002016-10-02T22:55:43.288+03:00Thanks for reacting to my rambling reaction, Dan. ...Thanks for reacting to my rambling reaction, Dan. I'm a regular reader of your blog, from which I always learn a lot, and as such obviously pleased you took the time to go over what I wrote. As an excursus from my usual blogging topics it's rather carelessly written, basically noting down details as I found them on various sources.<br /><br />I don't think I can reach a conclusion, because as you say the essential point is whether Chorten Nyima water is generally perceived (by Tibetans) as meant to purify grave sins, by bathing or otherwise. Where I do end up saying that the hilariousness of casually drinking water so sourced (or just named) is inconsistent with my findings, that should be read while keeping in mind the nature of the sources I consulted. To recapitulate what those were: articles in the Chinese-language press (written in a quasi-advertorial style by reporters with Han names) and Tibetan government websites. These materials do make things look like drinking water from the source is an authentic Tibetan custom, but of course they would say that, wouldn't they. My sources contradict yours; it's not hard to determine which ones are better informed (and less partial) observers of Tibetan traditions.<br /><br />I don't work in the bottled water industry (I wish Messrs Ya-med would compensate me for blogging about them). As it happens, I have strong misgivings about it in general, and in Tibet in particular. <br /><br />Yes, 'Magic Water' is a (mis)translation of the Chinese 神水 shén shuǐ 'divine water'. I think 神 shén 'spirit, divinity...' has a considerable semantic overlap with lha, and 'magic' isn't really in the Chinese either. Regardless, when I see signs like these with Chinese and something else, my default hypotesis is that any other languages are translated (to use a big word) from the Chinese.<br /><br />Which allows us to segue rather seamlessly into Shangri-la. I've been trying to make sense of the horribly mangled-up 'bbe'-sign for some time, unsuccessfully so far. I've also found pictures of other broken Shangri-la translations. All the Chinglish transparently comes from the Chinese, which is understandable considering the Tibetan versions are just decoration. I'm still intrigued about the bbe sign, since I can't find a way to get to it from the Chinese. We could safely say that it's been copied onto the sign by someone not literate in Tibetan, meaning they could have simply confused similarly shaped letters (e.g. *bbe could be dbe, *r.mar could be dmar...). The problem is that I haven't found a plausible original text that could come from the Chinese. Another possibility to consider is input-method/encoding misuse (resulting in broken display of a correct Tibetan original), but that would normally produce even worse gibberish than the sign, that includes legitimate segments (phyi, rting...). I did check some (broken) online PRC tools that could conceivably reproduce the process, but the output was a totally different kind of gibberish. <br /><br />So I might leave you disappointed on Shangri-la I'm afraid. I will comment later on other mistranslated signs, but I doubt I can come up with a plausible Road To *Bbe.<br /><br />Are you aware of anything in Tibetan sources about the Chorten Nyima's site association with Padmasambhava? And of any (online?) Tibetan-language maps or lists of place names? Finding the Tibetan name for Smon-sde village (in Gampa, Shigatse) took me quite some time, and I couldn't manage to find Tibetan names for the lakes in the Chorten Nyima area.<br /><br />Almost all the links in my post are in Chinese, but I do recommend the pictures in the pages linked at the very end of the post. I wonder what the temple looked like before the Cultural Revolution (the one standing now was (re)built in the '80s).<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-7717197352331381472016-10-02T13:11:45.304+03:002016-10-02T13:11:45.304+03:00Dear Lulu,
Thanks for the comment and for the re...Dear Lulu, <br /><br />Thanks for the comment and for the remarkable reblog. That's an impressive amount of work on locating the possible water sources for the bathing and the bottling. I'm not completely sure what your final conclusion is, but as interesting as that is, I don't think it's especially relevant to the issue of interpreting the mysteriously hilarious laughter. Every Tibetan is very likely aware that Chorten Nyima is a place that specializes in purifying the most terrible sin of incest, and the name itself (regardless of exact locations) is what is significant here. I started to wonder if you might be in the bottled water business? Just wondered, not that I know enough about anything, let alone you. I'm always prepared to get better informed, so maybe you could also help me out with the Chinese in the next blog on the Signs of Shangri-la? Yours, D.<br /><br />PS: One point: lha-chu could be, in India-related contexts, an epithet for the "Divine River" the Ganga, or in local Tibetan contexts a blessing-bestowing spring. There isn't any sense of "magic" there in those words, it's all about popular Buddhist devotional practice. So no, "Magic Water" is not an accurate translation of the Tibetan. More likely this English is a translation of the Chinese, you think?Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-72652321416082781782016-10-01T23:55:33.678+03:002016-10-01T23:55:33.678+03:00Great post!
I checked Chinese sources on some of ...Great post!<br /><br />I checked Chinese sources on some of these issues and was going to write a comment, but it grew a bit too long so I ended up posting it <a href="https://jichanglulu.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/kalendis-octobribus-tibetan-magic-water/" rel="nofollow">here</a> (might still undergo updates).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com