[Buddha-l] Lamas and such

[Joy Vriens]

Hi John,
> I have never heard the term "zielenboer" before and google does not return 
> any hits.
>   
Probably because it's a neologism.
In fact agent particles like "ma", "pa", "ba", "mo" etc. are called 
"ming mtha'" ("name ends") and can be added to a noun to design an agent 
(professions etc.). E.g. the word "zhing" (field) followed by "pa" makes 
zhing-pa, literally  a field-er, a farmer. "rta" is a horse and rta-pa a 
horse rider. "yi ge " is a letter/syllable and yi-ge-pa a scribe or 
copyist. So if you have "bla" (soul) and you use a nominalising "name 
end", with its professional undertones, to express an agent, then you 
could translate bla-ma as a "soul-er".

I got the idea for "farmer" from the combination zhing-pa (field-er = 
farmer). The Dutch -boer can be added to jobs that usually have a nice 
ring to them in order to attenuate the nice ring. Like an "estate agent" 
becomes a "huizenboer" (house farmer) and a stock broker an 
"aandelenboer" (share farmer). Hence the "zielenboer" (soul farmer). If 
the neologism "soul farmer" ever makes it as a standard translation for 
lama, I would like this post to be included in etymological dictionaries.

Joy