Thonmi Sambhota

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Thonmi Sambhota (Thönmi Sambhoṭa) is the traditional inventor of the Tibetan script in the 7th century AD. However, he is not mentioned in any Old Tibetan texts.

He is traditionally said to have been the fourth of seven wise ministers of the emperor Songtsen Gampo.

"According to Tibetan tradition, Songsten Gampo sent a young man of the Thönmi or Thumi clan, Sambhoṭa son of Anu (or Drithorek Anu), to India (in 632?) with other youths, to learn the alphabet. The pattern chosen was the script of Kashmir. At all events, the ancient annals of Tun-huang record against the year 655 that 'the text of the laws was written'. It is staggering to realize that, in a couple of decades, not only was the Tibetan alphabet invented, but the script had been adapted to the Tibetan language by a highly complicated orthography, and used for the writing of documents. Thönmi is also said to have composed, no doubt later on, a very learned grammar on the Indian pattern."[1]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ R. A. Stein. Tibetan Civilization. (1972), pp. 51, 58. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN 0-08047-0901-1 (paper).
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