The
Tibetan script is an
abugida of
Indic origin used to write the
Tibetan language as well as the
Dzongkha language,
Ladakhi language and sometimes the
Balti language. The printed form of the script is called
uchen script (
Tibetan ???????;&_160;
Wylie dbu-can; "with a head") while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called
umé script (
Tibetan ????????;&_160;
Wylie dbu-med; "headless"). Besides Tibet, the writing system is also used in
Bhutan and in parts of
India and
Nepal.
The script is romanized in a variety of ways. This article employs the Wylie transliteration system.
The creation of the Tibetan script is attributed to Thonmi Sambhota of the mid-7th century. The tradition holds that Thonmi Sambhota, a minister of Songtsen Gampo (569-649), was sent to India to study the art of writing, and upon his return introduced the Tibetan script. The form of the letters is based on an Indic alphabet of that period, but which specific Indic script inspired the Tibetan alphabet remains controversial.
There were three orthographic standardizations after the script's invention. The most important one, an official one aimed to facilitate the translation of Buddhist scriptures, took place during the early 9th century. The Tibetan orthography has not altered since then, while the spoken language keeps changing, for example, losing the complex consonant clusters. As a result, in all modern Tibetan dialects, in particular the Lhasa dialect, the spelling, which reflects the 9th-century spoken Tibetan, differs from the reading significantly. This is why some people are in favour of transliterating Tibetan "as it is pronounced", for example, writing "Kagyu" instead of "Bka'-rgyud".
