1. Alphabet

1. The Alphabet. The Tibetan Alphabet was adapted from the la nya tsha form of the Indian letters by thon mi sam bho ta minister of king srong tsan gam po about the year 632 (s. Kopp. II, 56). The Indian letters out of which the single Tibetan characters were formed are given in the following table in their Nāgari shape.

(See our own Standard & Extended Wylie diagrams Sambhota for images of the Tibetan script.)

It is seen in this table that several signs have been added to express sounds that are unknown in Sanscrit.