chilip

plural chilips

1. colloquialA foreigner, especially a Westerner; someone from outside Bhutan or the broader Tibetan cultural sphere.

   Tshomo, a young herdswoman from Laya who lives with her herd of yaks on a lonely mountain pasture, hears his cries, saves the chilip, and soon takes him under her wing in every sense of the word.

   2017 February 13, Martin Uitz, Hidden Bhutan: Entering the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon, Haus Publishing, →ISBN, page 71

   2 more examples

   There are accounts of curious villagers, unaccustomed to seeing those who come from faraway lands, turning up at the door “to have a look at the chilip.” This term for a Westerner is at once affectionate but slightly disparaging.

   2021 March 4, Karma Choden, Dorji Wangchuk, Bhutan - Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture, Kuperard, →ISBN, page 57

   Back in Thimphu I had heard about a (male) Fulbrighter being undressed down to his underwear in a parking lot. “The ritual undressing of the chilip,” a friend had called it, chilip (“grey hair”) being the local word for foreigners.

   2025 June 17, Betsy Bolton, In the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon: Happiness, History, and Environment in a Changing Bhutan, Lever Press, →ISBN, page 49