Kadrung Nornang’s Rules for Formal Letter Writing was written in 1888 by Nornang Wangdü Tsering, a Chair-Secretary in the Tibetan government. The book is a comprehensive manual of the rules and etiquette in the composition of all manner of correspondence, including formatting and margins of letters, how to properly address letter recipients according to their rank or position, how to use a seal and wax to close the letter, and so on. For this talk, speaker Geshe Nornang, the grandson of Kadrung Nornang, talks about the history of the book, its role as the authority on Tibetan letter-writing, and on his exquisite hand-written copy of Kadrung Nornang’s Rules, currently on display at the library.
Geshe Nornang
Geshe Nawang Lodoe Nornang is a retired lecturer from the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington. Born in Lhasa, Geshe Nornang came to the U.S. in 1960, where he had a long and fruitful career at the university, teaching and developing Tibetan language materials, including the Manual of Spoken Tibetan (Lhasa Dialect) and Modern Spoken Tibetan: Lhasa Dialect.
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