Twenty-eight constellations

Twenty eight lunar constellations (Tib. རྒྱུ་སྐར་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་བརྒྱད་, gyukar nyishu tsa gyé, Wyl. rgyu skar nyi shu rtsa brgyad), sometimes referred to as 28 lunar mansions (Skt. nakshatra) — the 28 nakshatras comprise a lunar zodiac marking the passage of the moon around the night sky, and are alluded to in the Vedas. In ancient Indian culture each nakshatra was considered to be the sacred abode of a particular deity and this also continued in the Tibetan tradition.

1. Eta Tauri (Skt. Kṛttikā; Tib. སྨིན་དྲུག་, min drug; Wyl. smin drug)
2. Aldeberan (Skt. Rohini; Tib. སྣར་མ་, narma; Wyl. snar ma)
3. Lambda Orionis (Skt. Mrigashīra; Tib. མགོ་, go; Wyl. mgo)
4. Alpha Orionis (Skt. Ārdrā; Tib. ལག་པ་, lagpa; Wyl. lag pa)
5. Beta Geminorum (Skt. Punarvasu; Tib. ནབས་སོ་, nabso; Wyl. nabs so)
6. Delta Cancri (Skt. Pushya; Tib. རྒྱལ་, gyal; Wyl. rgyal)
7. Alpha Hydrae (Skt. Ashlesha; Tib. སྐག་, kag; Wyl. skag)
8. Regulus (Skt. Maghā; Tib. རྟ་པ་, tapa; Wyl. rta pa)
9. Delta Leonis (Skt. Pūrva Phalgunī; Tib. གྲེ་, dré; Wyl. gre)
10. Beta Leonis (Skt. Uttara Phalgunī ; Tib. དབོ་, wo; Wyl. dbo)
11. Delta Corvi (Skt. Hasta; Tib. མེ་བཞི་, mé shi; Wyl. me bzhi)
12. Spica Virginis (Skt. Chitrā ; Tib. ནག་པ་, nagpa; Wyl. nag pa)
13. Arcturus (Skt. Svātī; Tib. ས་རི་, sari; Wyl. sa ri)
14. Alpha Librae (Skt. Vishākhā ; Tib. ས་ག་, saga; Wyl. sa ga)
15. Delta Scorpio (Skt. Anurādhā; Tib. ལྷ་མཚམས་, hla tsam; Wyl. lha mtshams)
16. Antares (Skt. Jyeshtha; Tib. སྣྲོན་, nön; Wyl. snron)
17. Lambda Scorpii (Skt. Mūla; Tib. སྣྲུབས་, nub; Wyl. snrubs)
18. Delta Sagittarii (Skt. Pūrva Ashādhā; Tib. ཆུ་སྟོད་, chu tö; Wyl. chu stod)
19. Sigma Sagittarii (Skt. Uttara Ashādhā; Tib. ཆུ་སྨད་, chu mä; Wyl. chu smad)
20. Alpha Aquilae (Skt. Abhijit; Tib. གྲོ་བཞིན་, dro shin; Wyl. gro bzhin)
21. Lyra (Skt. Shravana ; Tib. བྱི་བཞིན་, ji shin; Wyl. byi bzhin)
22. Lamda Aquarius (Skt. Dhanistha; Tib. མོན་གྲེ་, mön dré; Wyl. mon gre)
23. Beta Delphinium (Skt. Shatabhisha; Tib. མོན་གྲུ་, mön dru; Wyl. mon gru)
24. Alpha Pegasi (Skt. Pūrva Bhādrapadā; Tib. ཁྲུམས་སྟོད་, trum tö; Wyl. khrums stod)
25. Gamma Pegasi (Skt. Uttara Bhādrapadā; Tib. ཁྲུམས་སྨད་, trum mä; Wyl. khrums smad)
26. Zeta Piscum (Skt. Revatī; Tib. ནམ་གྲུ་, nam dru; Wyl. nam gru)
27. Beta Arietis (Skt. Ashvinī; Tib. ཐ་སྐར་, ta kar; Wyl. tha skar)
28. Arietis (Skt. Bharanī; Tib. བྲ་ཉེ་, dra nyé; Wyl. bra nye)

Sometimes there is mention of only 27 lunar constellations or nakshatras as, after the introduction of the zodiac into India, probably in the second century AD, the nakshatras became redefined. Asvini, with marking stars Beta and Gamma Arietis, became the premier nakshatra, and one of the nakshatras became discarded, leaving 27 nakshatra.