Person · Tibetan script inventor · India
Thonmi Sambhota
Also known as Thönmi Sambhota, Thonmi Anu
Thonmi Sambhota (born c.619 CE) was the minister king Songtsen Gampo sent to Kashmir and Nalanda in the 7th century to study Indian scripts and bring back a usable writing system for Tibetan. He returned with the Lantsa-descended Siddhamātṛkā script of 6-7c north India, from which he devised the Tibetan uchen ('headed') script of 30 consonants and four vowel marks still used today. He also wrote the first eight Tibetan grammar treatises, two of which survive: the Sum-cu-pa (the Thirty) and the rTags-kyi-'jug-pa (the Guide to Signs). The invention of Tibetan writing is traditionally dated to 650 CE and is the technological precondition for the entire Tibetan Buddhist canon's translation from Sanskrit over the next five centuries.
- Date
- 619–680
- Function
- Learning & scholarship
- Patron dynasty
- Yarlung dynasty
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (1)
- Life routeNālandā mahāvihāra
Thonmi Sambhota was sent by king Songtsen Gampo in the mid-7th century to study at the Buddhist mahāvihāras of northern India — Nalanda primary among them — and to bring back a usable writing system for Tibetan. He returned with the Lantsa-descended Siddhamātṛkā script of 6-7c north India and devised the Tibetan uchen script from it, used continuously for the 1,350 years since.
On these journeys
Sources
Standard biography.
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