Thonmi Sambhota

Tibetan name
Tibetan script : ཐོན་ མི་ སམ་ བྷོ་ ཊ །
Wylie transliteration : thon mi sam bho ṭa
Pronunciation in IPA : [ tʰø̃mi sampota ]
Official transcription of the PRCh : Toinmi Samboda
THDL transcription : Tönmi Sambota
Other spellings: Thonmi Sambhota
Chinese name
Simplified : 吞米 • 桑布扎、端美 • 三菩提、吐米 • 桑布扎、吞弥 • 桑布扎
Pinyin : Tūnmǐ Sāngbùzā, Duānměi Sānpútí, Tǔmǐ Sāngbùzā, Tūnmí Sāngbùzhā

Thonmi Sambhota is considered to be the inventor of the Tibetan script in the 7th century. However, he is not mentioned in Tibetan texts from his period of life. He probably actually lived in the late 8th and early 9th centuries when the Mahāvyutpatti came into being.

Thangka with Thonmi Sambhota, Sahil Bhopal and Tashi Mannox

Sambhota was a legendary minister of Songtsen Gampo and was sent by him on a mission to Northern India (probably to what is now Kashmir ) to gather information about Buddhism . Then the minister allegedly invented a script for the Tibetan language which, according to current knowledge, is based on the Gupta script . He wrote a grammar of the Tibetan language based on the model of traditional Sanskrit grammars, but it mainly consists of spelling rules. His most important works are the sum cu pa ("thirty verses") and the rtags' jug ("introduction to the signs"). According to the 11th century bka 'chems ka khol ma (“ pillar testament ”), the oldest work that ascribes the invention of writing to him, he is said to have invented the letters ཅ, ཆ, ཇ, ཞ and འ around Tibetan sounds to be able to write that had no equivalent in Indian.

Footnotes

^ ^A ^b ^c David L. Snellgrove : The Cultural Effects of Territorial Expansion. In: Alex McKay (Ed.): The History of Tibet. The Early Period: to c. AD 850. The Yarlung Dynasty . Routledge 2003, ISBN 0415308429 , pp. 442-456, here p. 442.
↑ The bka 'chems ka khol ma is traditionally ascribed to Songtsen Gampo.
↑ Namgyal Nyima Dagkar: The Early Spread of Bon. In: Alex McKay (Ed.): The History of Tibet. The Early Period: to c. AD 850. The Yarlung Dynasty . Routledge 2003, ISBN 0415308429 , pp. 511-529, here p. 512.

personal data
SURNAME	Thonmi Sambhota
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Inventor of the Tibetan script
DATE OF BIRTH	between 6th century and 8th century
DATE OF DEATH	between 7th century and 9th century

[Snellgrove-1] A ^b ^c David L. Snellgrove : The Cultural Effects of Territorial Expansion. In: Alex McKay (Ed.): The History of Tibet. The Early Period: to c. AD 850. The Yarlung Dynasty . Routledge 2003, ISBN 0415308429 , pp. 442-456, here p. 442.

[2] The bka 'chems ka khol ma is traditionally ascribed to Songtsen Gampo.

[3] Namgyal Nyima Dagkar: The Early Spread of Bon. In: Alex McKay (Ed.): The History of Tibet. The Early Period: to c. AD 850. The Yarlung Dynasty . Routledge 2003, ISBN 0415308429 , pp. 511-529, here p. 512.