bDud rTsi - Ambrosia

བདུད་རྩི་ from bdud: demon, death, evil, and rtsi: essence, extract, juice, elixir 


A Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit अमृत / amṛta (incorrectly transliterated in some sources as amrīta / amrita / note that the Tibetan "i" is backwards, standing for the Sanskrit vowel ""ཨ་མྲྀ་ཏ not ཨ་མྲི་ཏ) from a-, a prefix of negation, and mṛta, death. 


Monier Williams gives the following English translations of amṛta: deathless, immortal, beloved; the nectar (conferring immortality); antidote; anything sweet.


Suggested translation: ambrosia, a word whose Etymology is given as: "favored food or drink of the gods," from L. ambrosia, from Gk. ambrosia "food of the gods," fem. of ambrosios, probably lit. "of the immortals," from a- "not" + mbrotos, related to mortos "mortal," from PIE *mer- "to die" (debated)


Applied to certain herbs by Pliny and Dioscorides; used of various foods for mortals since 1680s (originally of fruit drinks); used figuratively for "anything delightful" by 1731.


Note that, not only does the English share the same range of meanings as the Tibetan's Sanskrit root; They also both may share the Proto-Indo-European root *mer- "to die".


See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia


"In ancient Greek mythologyambrosia (Greekἀμβροσία) is sometimes the food or drink of the Greek gods (or demigods), often depicted as conferring ageless immortality upon whomever consumed it."


Also: nectar (nek- death, -tar, to overcome)--hence, to overcome death. 

Comments

Mike said…
Your post got me thinking more about བདུད་རྩི་ and thought you might be interested in this post:

http://philologia-tibetica.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post_12.html
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
Thanks Mike! I just thought, I wonder if this "Demon-Juice" etymology is kind of a Tantric principle, as in, drinking a demonic elixir then enables one to overcome those negative influences (much like essential desires are used to overcome desire on the path)... But that's probably reading too much into it :P

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