Terms for "Basketball", "Basketball" བོད་མིང་།
Building out our Tibetan Basketball Training & Terminology Guide we've come across a number of Tibetan terms from various regions for "basketball". Each holds an interesting background:
སྤོ་ལོ། (roughly pronounced "bōlō" in Amdo areas) - simply meaning "ball", this term seems to be used for many sports across the Plateau involving a ball, including both basketball and football️ (soccer). We are also seeing variations of "ball" spelled པོ་ལོ། and བོ་ལོ།, and shortened to པོལ། and སྤོལ། . All appear to have derived more or less from ཕོ་ལོང་།, which means a ball of yarn/thread originally of yak hair used for tents or sheep wool for ropes/bags (གྲུ་གུ also shares this meaning, shortened to གྲུག).
It is believed the English word "polo" - the horseback sport - is a direct loan word from these Tibetan words for "ball", as some scholars believe the sport had its origins in Tibet!
ལྒང་ལི། means "bladder", but is also used for "ball". Animal bladders (yak, pig, and sometimes sheep) were used not only as a small bag to carry tsampa (a Tibetan staple food made from barley, a grain that is able to exist at high altitudes) when nomads would go out herding, but would also be used for basketballs and footballs. The bladders would be cleaned, blown up with air, tied, then sometimes wrapped in leather.
དྲ་འཕེན་སྤོ་ལོ། is a popular one, as དྲ means "net" or "lattice" pattern, and འཕེན is "shooting/throwing at a target" (like archery, a popular Tibetan sport). In Ritoma and other areas, kids would play a game called ཀ་ར་འཕེན།, which involved throwing candy in a hole from a distance (adults would also play སྐར་མ་འཕེན།, throwing coins in a hole). Winners get to keep the candy and coins!
གཟེབ is very similar to དྲ with regards to "net" or "lattice" patterns, but more in the context of baskets, cages, or the part of fences that were woven from natural materials.
ལག་རྩེད་སྤོ་ལོ། or ལག་སྤོལ། has been suggested/used in some areas, as it means "hand playing ball" or "handball".
From the term submissions from a variety of Tibetan areas, we have seen both སིལ and སླེ used in conjunction with གྲུག and པོལ།/སྤོལ།. Both སེལ་བོ། and སླེ་བོ། describe the baskets mainly used to carry yak/sheep dung for fuel, and སླེ used as a term for knitting (like at Norlha). སིལ་པོལ། appears to be a term used in the Lhasa dialect for basketball, however on our end we thought སིལ means fruit (སིལ་ཁུ meaning fruit juice), and we are wondering if it was meant to be spelled instead སེལ (སེལ་སྤོལ།)? Any Lhasa speakers please let us know your thoughts on this!
According to our General Manager Jampa (who in addition to basketball and poetry loves Tibetan history), in the mid 800's one of the three great Dharma Kings of Tibet, Ralpacan, updated the rules of grammar and the vocabulary list for the Tibetan language and writing. However in the remote areas far from Lhasa, the updates weren't known and those Tibetans continued using the terms and rules from before the mid 800s, especially when speaking, even until today. This is another reason why there are slight variations in the terms used, including those for "basketball".
Tibetan hoopers - which term do you use? We'd love to hear them; please email us at basketball@norlha.com