Etiquettes

--Greetings

When two friends meet again after a long separation, one's hand should not be put up on the other's shoulder. When you express your respect to somebody, generally, you should add "Ra" attached his name. Tibetan consists of honorific and non-honorific languages. Using honorific talking with respecter and guest shows your respect. When you walk on the road, you should not go across other passerbys and, when encountering, you should give precedence to others out of courtesy. Additionally, in a dinner, you should not eat too much each time and do not make noise when biting or drinking.

--Present Hadas

Present hadas is a general ceremony in Tibet. People present hadas while wedding, mourning or celebrating; present hadas when having an audience with respects and praying on the religious forms; present hadas when sending off friends, and so on. Hada is a kind of raw silk that spins sparsely like net. Another kind of hada is made with excellent silk. Hada is often 3 to 5 Chi or 1 to 2 Zhang in length. Presenting hadas expresses heartedness and loyalty. From of old, Tibetan regards white as the symbol of chastity and fortune. So hada is always white. Certainly there are multicolored hadas, such as blue, white, yellow, green and red. Blue means sky, white means cloud, green means rivers, red means divinity and yellow means earth. The multicolored hadas are made to Cai Jian, which are the best ceremonious gifts showing up to Bodhisattva and close relatives. The Doxy of Buddhism explains the multicolored hadas are the costume of Bodhisattva. So they are used on the special occasions. Hadas were introduced to Tibet in Yuan Dynasty. When Baciba-Saqia Fawang met with Hubilie-the first Emperor of Yuan Dynasty, he fetched a hada back to Tibet. At that time, both sides of hadas were the design of the Great Wall and the middle writed Ji Xiang Ru Yi (Good fortune as wishes), so we can say hadas are introduced to Tibet from backland. Subsequently, people attached the hadas the religion explanation, said they are the streamers of fairy.

--Toast

Tibetans are all hospitable. When Tibetans play hosts to guests by Qing Ke (which is a kind of wine made of highland barley), they fill the wine holding to the guest. The guest should take in both hands, then raise the wineglass by right hand, and using the third finger in left hand trending into the glass, dipping wine lightly and flicking to the sky. That means heavenly-mindedness. And he should flick twice, flick the third, and those mean terra-respectfulness and Buddha-espectfulness. This kind of traditional custom tells people the derivation of Qing Ke is connected nearly with the benefaction of the sky, the terra and Buddha. So before drinking, people should toast the deity. There is a custom as the following established usage when drinking: first, guests should drink a little and the host fills in soon; guests drink a little again and the host fills in once more; the third the same as the before. When the glass is filled in the third times, guests should quaff them all. Only in this way, the host feels respected. The guests drink more, the host will be much happy because of his excellent wine brewing. When toasting to male guest, Tibetans always use dock-glass or big bowl; to female guest, they always use cannikin or small bowl. When drinking tea, the guests should wait for the cup held toward to himself and he drinks. If not, he will be considered as disrespectful.

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