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Tibetan script

Tibetan writing system

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The Tibetan script has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali and Nepali. The printed form is called uchen script while the hand-written form used in everyday writing is called umê script. This writing system is especially used across the Himalayan Region.

History

Little is known about the exact origins of Tibetan script. According to Tibetan historiography, it was developed during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo by his minister Thonmi Sambhota, who was sent to India along with other scholars to study Buddhism along with Sanskrit. They developed the Tibetan script from the Gupta script while at the Pabonka Hermitage. This occurred c. 620, towards the beginning of Songtsen Gampo's reign. There were 21 Sutra texts held by the King which were translated afterwards. In the first half of the 7th century, the Tibetan script was used for the codification of these sacred Buddhist texts, for written civil laws, and for a Tibetan Constitution.

Earliest sources on Tibet, such as the Old Tibetan Chronicle, do not mention any Thonmi Sambhota. Scripts predating Songtsen Gampo might have existed but in any case do not appear to be widely used. Researchers postulate that Tibetan kings sought to develop a system of writing as their territory expanded. The script resembling the version today was likely developed in the second half of the 11th century. New research and writings also suggest that there were one or more Tibetan scripts in use prior to the introduction of the script by Songtsen Gampo and Thonmi Sambhota. The incomplete Dunhuang manuscripts are the key evidence for this hypothesis, while the few discovered and recorded Old Tibetan Annals manuscripts date from 650 and therefore post-date the c. 620 date of development of the original Tibetan script.

Van Schaik (2011) states that the Late Gupta script of Nepal and Northern India is to be considered as the most likely primary model for the Tibetan script. Van Schaik concludes that the Tibetan script was likely finalized in the 630s or 640s, around the time the Tibetan Empire began formally developing its written administrative system. Although Tönmi Sambhota’s historical existence cannot be confirmed, the evidence supports the idea that a Tibetan mission or similar effort went to India to study writing. The Tibetan script appears to have developed through two stages of Indic influence: early Gupta forms and later developments associated with Siddhamātṛkā. Van Schaik proposes that Late Gupta forms reached Tibet throughout the 6th century, after which the Tibetan court deliberately undertook a project to create a new script adapted to the phonetics of Tibetan, also incorporating new developments seen in the Siddhamātṛkā found in Northern india. This new script became the first version of the Tibetan script, attested later by inscriptions of the 8th century.

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