ཀ Ka the first letter of the Tibetan alphabet, corresponding in sound to the Sanskrit क or the English K. Of this letter we read: ཀ་ནི་རྩ་བ་ཞེས་པར་གྲགས ka-ni ṟtsa-wa shes̱-par grags̱ (K. g. ཀ 424) "the ka is called the root." As the first letter it has the sense of "the beginning": ཀ་ནས་དག་པ ka-nas̱ dag-pa pure from the beginning. Again, it can signify "power": སྙན་འཚེར་རུང་མ་ཤུ་ཀ་མེད​ s̱ñan ẖtsher-run̂ ma-shu ka-meḏ though unpleasant to hear, I have no power not to say it; མ་གནང་ཀ་མེད​ ma g̱nan̂ ka-meḏ powerless not to give; མ་འགྲོ་ཀ་མེད​ ma ẖgro ka-meḏ powerless not to go, i.e., cannot avoid going. ཀ ka has almost the same sense in ཀ་ཅིས་ཀྱང་མི་ཕན་འཆི་བ་ལ ka cis̱ kyan̂ mi-phan ẖchi-wa la (Lo. 35), no resource avails at death. This letter seems to have other metaphorical meanings; thus we read: ཀ་ཤེས་བྱ་བ་འདོད་པ་ཡིན​ ka shes-bya-wa ẖdoḏ-pa yin (K. g. ཁ 179) "ka, so to be called, is desire."

ཀ I: 1. when used in indicating numbers ka signifies one or first. 2. in modern Tibetan as an affix to many words it denotes: the, all the, the very, སྐབས་ཀ s̱kabs̱-ka has the same meaning as སྐབས་སུ s̱kabs̱-su, on a certain occasion; དེ་ཀ de-ka that very; གཉིས་ཀ gñis̱-ka the two. 3. in a large number of words we find ཀ occurring as the second syllable. In some of these it has been added apparently as a differentiative particle; and in the colloq. we often find it annexed to the older monosyllabic form without explainable reason.

ཀ II: indeed; surely: སླར་ཡང་དྲན་དུ་ཀ་སོང​ s̱lar yan̂ dṟan-du ka son̂ (Pag. 42) later again he indeed recollected (the separation).

ཀ ka for; ཀ་བ ka-wa a pillar.

ཀ་ཁ ka-kha 1. the A-B-C, or alphabet. 2. a feather: བསང་སྐད་ལ་ཀ་ཁ་ནི་སྒྲོ་འོ bsan̂-s̱kad la ka-kha ni s̱gro-ho (K. g. ཀ 216) in the secret language ka-kha signifies a feather.

ཀ་ཁ་པ ka-kha-pa a beginner of the alphabet; a child.

ཀ་ཐོ ka-tho, also ཀ་ཁའི་ཐོ ka-khaẖi tho, an alphabetical register; an index.

ཀ་ཐོག​ Ka-thog lit. "on the top of ཀ"; n. of a celebrated Buddhist monastery in Kham belonging to the Ṟñin̂-ma School, the Head Lama of which is believed always to be an incarnation of his predecessor and holds the title of ཀ་ཐོག་རིག་ཛིན་ཆེན་མོ། The hill on