Tibetan
Tibetan belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family of languages, a group that includes around two hundred and fifty languages spoken by about six million people in Tibet, China, Bhutan, Nepal, India, and Pakistan. Although some Tibetan dialects are nearly mutually incomprehensible, they share a literary language whose roots extend back to the importation of Buddhism from India to Tibet in the seventh century.
According to Tibetan historical accounts, the king at the time sent a minister to India to develop a script for writing Tibetan for the purpose of translating a vast number of Indian Buddhist texts from Sanskrit. The script he developed was based on a variant of Devanagari, a Sanskrit alphabet, and has remained in use for printed tracts until the present day. Tibetans use many other scripts, however, including a cursive script for writing letters and an ornamental one exclusively for Sanskrit mantras.
Emory Favorites
- Emory Tibet Digital Library
- Jor Lok podcast on iTunes U
- Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center
- Nitartha International
- Tibetan & Himalayan Digital Library
- Voice of Tibet
- Radio Free Asia - Tibetan
- The Government of Tibet in Exile
- Amdo Tibetan Learning Materials (eastern Tibetan dialect)
- The Tibetan Language Student
- Tibetan Wheel of Samsara
The Tibetan Language Video Project
This package of eight short video projects of Tibetan language skits was made possible under the 2016 ECLC Student Assistantship stipends. It is based on the projects of students from 101 & 102 classes during the academic year of 2015-16. The goal of this project is to encourage and share students’ own creative work. The projects represent, however, only an aspect of their learning through fun activities. Students’ original videos and accompanying texts were minimally edited and corrected with the assistance of Byeonghoon Lim, a rising senior student of Tibetan studies with MESAS at Emory.
The project was strengthened further with additional easy exercises that are relevant to functional usage outside of the classroom. It is hoped that this short project carried out during summer 2016 will enthuse lively spirit among students who are interested in Tibetan language and studies. Thanks to MESAS Department and Emory College of Language Center for their kind consideration and support.
Tsepak Rigzin & Byeonghoon Lim
MESAS and the Tibetan Language Program
Jor Lok: Tibetan Spelling and Pronunciation
Audio clips and visual images illustrate Tibetan spelling and pronunciation in the traditional Jor Lok system. Use in conjunction with classroom instruction or textbook study to master the rules of Tibetan spelling, pronunciation, and orthography.