Chinese zodiac · culture
Tibetan zodiac and elemental astrology
Tibetan elemental astrology combines twelve year signs with Wood, Fire, Earth, Iron and Water. Its almanacs belong to Tibetan calendar traditions, including Phuglug and Tsurlug.
Tibetan animal names in order
Wylie spells the Tibetan letters; it is not a phonetic pronunciation guide. Mouse, Sheep and Bird are customary English labels here. Year boundaries belong to the chosen Tibetan calendar tradition.
| Order | Native name | Wylie transliteration | Animal label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | བྱི་བ | byi ba | Mouse |
| 2 | གླང | glang | Ox |
| 3 | སྟག | stag | Tiger |
| 4 | ཡོས | yos | Rabbit |
| 5 | འབྲུག | 'brug | Dragon |
| 6 | སྦྲུལ | sbrul | Snake |
| 7 | རྟ | rta | Horse |
| 8 | ལུག | lug | Sheep |
| 9 | སྤྲེལ | sprel | Monkey |
| 10 | བྱ | bya | Bird |
| 11 | ཁྱི | khyi | Dog |
| 12 | ཕག | phag | Pig |
Elements and year signs
The elemental system reads relationships among the five elements alongside year signs, trigrams and numeric squares. Iron corresponds to the label often translated Metal in Chinese five-phase charts.
Calendar traditions matter
Men-Tsee-Khang follows the Phuglug tradition. Tsurlug is another continuing lineage. Their calendrical context matters when reading an almanac rather than simply importing a Chinese New Year date.
Men-Tsee-Khang publishes an almanac, a pocket diary and a one-page calendar. Its almanac year starts from the third lunar month; that editorial year is distinct from assuming every annual publication begins at Losar.