西藏礼仪与禁忌

∙Remember not to step on threshold when entering the tent or house.

∙Calling somebody in name please add "la" behind the name to express respects.

∙If you are asked to sit down, please cross your legs, do not stretch your legs forward and face your sole to others.

∙You should accept the gift with both hands. While presenting the gift you should bend your body forward and hold the gift higher than your head with both hands. While offering tea, wine or cigarette, you should offer them by both hands and any fingers do not tough inside of the bowl.

∙Do not touch, walk over or sit on any religious texts, objects or prayer flags in monasteries.

∙When the host presents you a cup of wine, you should dip your ring finger in the wine and flick the wine into the sky, in the air and to the ground respectively to express your respects to the heaven, the earth and the ancestors before sipping the wine. The host will fill the cup, and you take a sip of the wine again. After the host fills your cup again, you have to bottom it up.

∙Tibetan people do not eat horse, dog and donkey meat and also do not eat fish in some areas, so please respect their diet habits.

∙It is not polite to clap your palms and spit behind the Tibetan people.

∙Tibetan people stretch out their tongue to say hello to you. Also it is a courtesy to put their hands palm in front of breast.

∙Do not smoke in monasteries. Also it is banned to touch the statue of Buddha and religious articles and take pictures of them. In addition, all should walk clockwise (not in the Bon temples).

∙Seeing any dagobas, monasteries or Mani piles, please go around them clockwise (not of the Bon), do not cross them.

∙Eagles are the sacred birds in the eyes of the Tibetan people. You should not drive them away or injure them. On the outskirts, you could not drive or disturb the sheep or cows with red, green or yellow cloth strips on.

∙When visiting a local home:

Tibetans are famous for their hospitality, and warmly invite visitors into their homes. It is important not to step on the threshold when visiting a local Tibetan family's home. Hosts will normally try to over feed visitors to show their generosity. They will offer food until they bankrupt themselves, or eat into their supplies stored to get them through the winter. Visitors must be prepared to make repeated refusals of excess food. Many Tibetans will offer food until forced not too. One polite way to refuse food is to press your palms together and bow as if praying the hosts for their forgiveness.

∙Tea is in an integral part of every Tibetan's day, and when visiting a home, your bowl of tea will be refilled continually. If you stop drinking, and allow the tea to grow cold, the host will dump out the cold tea and refill the bowl. It is important not to refuse tea, but it is all right to ask for hot water or clear tea instead.

∙Tibetan people are some of the warmest and most generous on earth. They seem to smile more than any other people on earth. Many faux-pas can be forgiven, but it is better to follow the items listed to make yourself seem more respectable to their traditions with will ingratiate visitors to the locals.