JOURNAL, 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 
Part I.—HISTORY, LITERATURE, &e. 
No. II.—1888. 
The Sacred and Ornamental Characters of Tibet *—By Sarat Chandra Das, 
(With nine plates.) 
It is a well known fact that Thon-mi, the son of Ann, who was one 
of the chief ministers of king Sron-tsan Gampo, introduced the art of 
writing in Tibet. He studied Sanskrit under several eminent Buddhist 
professors of Magadha for many years, and after acquiring a thorough 
knowledge of the sacred literature of the Buddhists, returned to Tibet, 
where he was cordially welcomed by his illustrious sovereign. During 
his residence in Magadha (A. D. 630—650) he enjoyed high reputation as 
a scholar and holy man, and was called by the name Sambhota or the ex¬ 
cellent Bhota, i. e., a native of Bhot (Tibet). He wrote seven treatises 
on the newly formed written language, besides his celebrated grammar 
in verse which all beginners in Tibet commit to memory. 
During the reign of king Sron-tsan Gampo and his immediate 
successors translations of Sanskrit books were occasionally made in 
Magadha by Tibetan students studying at S'ri Nalendra (Nalanda), but 
no regular attempt was yet made to translate the sacred books into 
Tibetan. At this period the thirty-four letters, which Sambhota had 
introduced from Magadha and which he had shaped partly after the form 
of some of the ‘ Wartu ’ characters of Magadha (see Plate I), were found 
adequate for the conveyance of thought in writing. Then the language 
of Tibet was in its infancy and free from words either of Indian or 
Chinese origin. 
* [With this paper may be compared Mr. Hodgson’s account of the vai'ious 
Newari and Bhotiya characters, published with numerous plates, in the XVIth 
volume gf the Asiatic Researches, 1828. Ed.] 
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