zàng / cáng
noun #791

Meanings

  1. 1 storehouse; depository
  2. 2 Buddhist or Taoist scripture
  3. 3 Tibet; Tibetan

Examples

HSK 5
Xīzàng wèiyú gāoyuán shàng.
Tibet sits on a high-altitude plateau.
HSK 7-9
Dàzàngjīng shōulù le Fójiào de jīngdiǎn.
The Tripitaka collects the Buddhist canon.
HSK 7-9
Bǎozàng mái zài gǔmiào xiàmiàn.
Treasure is buried under the old temple.

Tips

usage
zàng is the noun reading - a storehouse or treasury (宝藏), the Buddhist canon (大藏经), and the place name Tibet (西藏). For the verb senses hide / store / collect, switch to cáng.
culture
西藏 literally means 'Western Storehouse' - the syllable zàng renders the Tibetan endonym Tsang while echoing the 'depository' sense. Same reading carries through 藏族 (Tibetan ethnic group) and 藏传佛教 (Tibetan Buddhism).

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; plant (radical form)
Top grass radical - the variant of used on plant and concealment chars. Hiding valuables or storing grain in tall vegetation is the semantic seed; the radical anchors that 'cover with growth' image.
phonetic
zāng
good; to hide away
Lower supplies the sound (zāng shifts to cáng/zàng via initial and tone change) and doubles as a semantic anchor - it originally meant 'to stash, store'. The same phonetic appears in (viscera).

Stroke Order

zàng