Tibetan Social Etiquette - Oath of Tibetan

As a mysterious land throughout the world, Tibetan people have many succeeded folk customs and unique social etiquettes. The oath of Tibetan is one of attractions of local Tibetan's daily life. During Tibet tour, you may find something common with the points that we have mentioned in our articles.

Tibetan Social Etiquette - Oath of Tibetan

To seriously take an oath is a tradition of Tibetan. An ancient book of Tang Dynasty depicted the contents of an oath made by Tu Shan Tsanpo (Tsanpo means the King of Tibetan's) who took an oath with his ministers, using a sheep, a dog, and a maaque as sacrifices to cut their legs before then King, then splitting their intestines and ordered some wizard to declare to the deities of the sun, the moon and starts that all deities judged who would have the same consequence like the sheep if breaking the oath. Today, Tibetan has taken an oath seriously as before. To swear has two kinds, one is to swear by words, another one is to swear by hands. To take an oath by words us to make oath orally and to take an oath by hands it to make the oath by using gestures or objects. In Tibet, people usually swear when they make friends, demonstrate the innocence, decide to keep secrets, meditate disputes and confide in a belief. Oral oath generally is that "Gong jue song" means the swear is made under the fame of Triratna; "Qiao ren bu" means the swear is made by the fame of Buddha Sakyamuni. In addition, some oaths are made by the fame of local land deities, some are made by the fame of parents and children. Oaths of the latters are very burdened ones because their relatives are put into the oath, and not only the person but the relatives will be impaired if one breaks the wear. It is complicated in taking an oath by gestures that is generally finished through religious ritual, for instance, to take an oath by putting a Buddhism scripture on one's head, knelt to Buddha sculpture, main Buddha sculpture or living Buddha.