Sacred Arts of Tibet (.pdf) - Asian Art Museum | Education

Sacred Arts of Tibet
How did this ancient text come to San Francisco?
According to the donors this manuscript was given to the famous Indian teacher Atisa by a Tibetan
named Rinchen Zangbo (958-1055) of Western Tibet. Atisa left it at the Shalu Monastery, located southeast
of Shigatse in southern Tibet. When China invaded Tibet in 1959, only two monks from Shalu
escaped and they took the manuscript with them. In 1958 it was given to the donor, Mr. Tamang, who
was a monk at the time. After he emigrated to the US, he donated the text to the Museum so that it
could be preserved and enjoyed by others.
What is the U-chen script?
The Tibetan language is spoken in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and in parts of northern India including Sikkim.
There are two principle forms of Tibetan writing, U-chen and U-me. U-chen is a printed form used traditionally
in carved wood blocks, and now for computer fonts. U-me scripts are cursive scripts used for official
documents and personal letters. While U-chen has one basic form, there are a large variety of U-me
scripts, some being very different and quite obscure. Although Tibetan belongs to the Tibeto-Burman
language group, the U-chen script was modeled on a ancient Sanskritic alphabet known in sixth- and
seventh-century India. Tibetans developed their writing system, which is an alphabet like Hebrew and
Roman script as opposed to a pictographic script like Chinese, in around the seventh century. It is said
this was done in order to be able to translate Buddhist texts into Tibetan. The Tibetan Emperor Songtsen
Gampo (died 650 CE) sent a delegation to India led by Thonmi Sambhota. After studying the Indian
writing system, Thonmi Sambhota adapted the script for Tibetan based on that Indian alphabet.
It consists of thirty basic letters, including the vowel a, and four extra vowel sounds on the Indian model
for i, u, e, and o. Spoken Tibetan has changed over the centuries but the writing system has not, so written
and spoken Tibetan are quite different. For example the word for “eight” is written as brgyad but is
pronounced “gyay”, or the name of Tibet’s great Emperor Songtsen Gampo would be literally transliterated
into written English as Srong-btsan-sgam-po. This presents a challenge to those who wish to speak
Tibetan as a foreign language, but it is advantageous to scholars who want to read ancient texts. Once
they learn to read Tibetan, they have access to Tibetan texts of any time period. Tibetan is a monosyllabic
language, meaning that every syllable has a meaning. The extra letters, while not pronounced, are essential
to distinguishing the meaning of the written word. (Snellgrove, p. 75)
Discussion Points/Teaching Suggestions
1) Explore the written and spoken Tibetan language (see examples on next page). Use travel guides on
Tibet, e.g. Lonely Planet or search online:
www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/language.htm www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/9594/tibet.htnl
Source
Alex Wayman, trans., Chanting the Names of Manjusri (Boston & London: Shambala, 1985): 94-5.
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