Tibetan Grammar

This book contains a grammar text by a famous Khenpo of the Karma Kagyu tradition of the nineteenth century, Ngedon Jamyang. His text is an explanation of the two defining texts of Tibetan grammar by Thumi Sambhota. In general, his text was written as a medium-to-advanced level grammar. In particular, he wrote the text to be an easy-to-understand version of the eighth Situ Rinpoche’s very famous but very difficult-to-understand grammar text known these days simply as “Situ’s Great Commentary”. Thus, this text is not only an excellent study for those wanting to understand Tibetan grammar at a deeper level, but also for those wanting to know the content of Situ’s very famous great commentary on Tibetan grammar.



The author of the book, Lama Tony Duff, has had a long association with Tibetan grammar as taught by Tibetans. He first learned Tibetan grammar using the books available in English but later learned it in Tibetan from Tibetans in Tibetan contexts. He found a distinct difference between how Westerners and Tibetans present Tibetan grammar and, with that, found that the presentations given by Westerners have been lacking and even mistaken. For this reason, he undertook the major task of translating the most important Tibetan grammar texts and publishing them together with extensive notes and explanations so that Westerners, and especially those translating the Buddha-Word, could finally gain a correct understanding of Tibetan grammar. As a result, there are four books in this series in which key Tibetan grammar texts are individually presented. In a second series, there are two grand treatises which collectively explore all of the minutest details of Tibetan grammar, called the Standard Reference to Tibetan Grammar volumes I and II. Lama Tony’s deep knowledge of Tibetan grammar as understood by Tibetans themselves has been a key factor in his production of many authentic translations of Tibetan Buddhist texts. Because of his extensive and highly regarded translation work, he has been invited to prestigious institutions to teach Tibetan grammar according to the Tibetan system and is constantly endeavouring to pass on his knowledge of translation to other translators.



It is an excellent companion to another Tibetan grammar text available in our series of books on native Tibetan grammar called “Tibetan Grammar: Situ’s Words” and we recommend reading them in tandem.