གཤེན

Tibetan

Etymology

Has been linked to ཤེས (shes, “to know, understand”) with a nominalizing circumfix; compare གཉེན (gnyen, “friend, relative”) and ཉེ་བ (nye ba, “near, dear”).

Pronunciation

• Old Tibetan: /*kɕen/
• Lhasa: /ɕẽ˥˥/

---

• Old Tibetan:
  • IPA^(key): /*kɕen/ (reconstructed)
• Ü-Tsang
  • Tibetan pinyin: xen^f
  • (Lhasa) IPA^(key): /ɕẽ˥˥/

Noun

གཤེན • (gshen)

1. the clan of the founder of Bon
2. (Bon) shaman, priest

   Synonym: བོན་པོ (bon po)

References

• “གཤེན” in The Tibetan Living Dictionary, Mandala Collections, 2021.
• Goldstein, Melvyn (2001). The New Tibetan-English Dictionary of Modern Tibetan. University of California Press.