The Locative

This employs the Tibetan convention of support and supported (རྟེན་དང་བརྟེན་པ།). The Locative marks the existence or dependence of some supported phenomenon (བརྟེན་པ།) upon some support (རྟེན།).

For example:

• “There are many snow mountain in Tibet.” བོད་ལ་གངས་རི་མང་པོ་ཡོད།
  i.e. Tibet is the support and the snow mountains are the supported
• “Effects depend upon causes.” འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་ལ་བརྟེན།
  i.e. the causes are the support and the effects are the supported

In other words, the Locative mainly marks:

• Place of existence
  e.g. “There are many snow mountain in Tibet.” བོད་ལ་གངས་རི་མང་པོ་ཡོད།
• Place of dependence
  e.g. “Effects depend upon causes.” འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་ལ་བརྟེན།
• Possessor of things
  e.g. “I have a pen.” ང་ལ་སྨྱུ་གུ་ཡོད།

The Locative marks the support or place of activity of verbs, e.g. བསྡད་ས། བརྟེན་ས། བསྟན་ས།. (See: Two types of place of activity)

The Locative usually marks nouns but can also mark verbs (only if nominalised).

Up a level: The Seventh Case – Locative