Tibetan script
Escritura tibetana
- Date
- c. 650 · confidence low
- Place
- Lhasa, Tibet, China
- Credited to
- Thonmi Sambhota, according to tradition
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An abugida of 30 consonants derived from an Indian Brahmi-type script, created to write Tibetan and translate Buddhist texts. It served the great translation of the Kangyur and Tengyur.
Tradition credits Thonmi Sambhota, minister of Songtsen Gampo; the Dunhuang documents date from the 8th-9th centuries and the story's historicity is debated.
What it led to
- translation of the Buddhist canon into Tibetan
- Tibetan literature, administration and woodblock printing
- the 'phags-pa and Soyombo scripts