ཧཱུྃ Hum Ham ཨོཾ Om a nu

Tibetan script overview

The Tibetan script is an abugida, ie. consonants carry an inherent vowel sound a that
is overridden using vowel signs. Text runs from left to right.

The script combines consonants, vowels, superscripts, and subscripts letters in

combinations that conform to the basic rules of Tibetan spelling to form syllables.
Words are made up of one or more syllables.

There are no case differences in Tibetan.

藏文是拼音字母文字，由辅音、元音、下标字、上标字
等基本字母按照藏文拼写规律组合而成，形成藏文的字
符和音节。
There are various different Tibetan scripts, of two basic types: དབུ་ཅན་ dbu-can,
pronounced uchen (with a head), and དབུ་མེད་ dbu-med, pronounced ume
(headless). This document concentrates on the former. Pronunciations are based on
the central, Lhasa dialect. 

Traditionally, Tibetan text was written on pechas (dpe-cha དཔེ་ཆ་ ), loose-leaf

sheets. Some of the characters used and formatting approaches are different in books
and pechas.  Tibetan structural elements include prefixes, root characters, subscripts,
superscripts, suffixes, secondary suffixes, vowels and intersyllabic marks.

藏文的结构元素包括前缀（prefix），根（root），下标
（subscript），上标（superscript），后缀(suffix)，后后
缀（secondary suffix），元音(vowel)及音节符
（intersyllabic mark）。
2.1 Tibetan Characters 藏文字符

2.1.1 Consonants ...

The basic 30 Tibetan consonants: 藏文有三十个辅音字母

2.1.2 Vowels ...

Standard Tibetan has five vowels, for which there are four characters, since one
vowel, a, is inherent in the consonant. Non-inherent vowels are indicated by a single
mark attached to and typed after a consonant or consonant stack. These are shown
with the character KA in the following figure.

དབྱངས་བཞི་ 即元音字母（vowel），标准的藏文有五个元
音，其中一个是发声固定的音 /a/，此音在通常带在各
辅音字母后面，所以不需要加，除非文字结构需要加，
其他的四个元音为非固定发声音，元音字母跟辅音字母
通过上下形式相叠加，产生特定的音同时与其他相对结
构较近似字区分。例如：སྤྱིར་ /tji/(一般)
ཀི ཀུ ཀེ ཀོ
KI KU KE KO
Figure 2 Tibetan vowel signs.

In the example ʧí, general, shown in Figure 3 the vowel sign that appears above the
stack is typed after the three consonants that make up the stack. 

2.3 Tibetan Syllables 藏文音节

The pronunciation of Tibetan words is typically much simpler than the orthography,
which involves patterns of consonants. These patterns reduce ambiguity and can
affect pronunciation and tone.

The following diagram shows characters in all of the syllabic positions, and lists the
characters that can appear in each of the non-root locations. The two-syllable word in
the example is འགྲེམས་སྟོན་ 'grems-ston ɖɹem-ton (exhibition).
Figure 6 Syllable composition in Tibetan

2.3.1 Structural Rules 结构规则

The primary consonant in a syllable is called the root consonant (or radical) (མིང་བཞི་),
and the other consonants in the syllable ( normally up to 6 in total) annotate or
modify it. The following rules help identify the root:

要分析藏文结构必须先得找出根字母，然后其他的部分
根据结构规则就能找到。根字母的判断方法如下：
1. A consonant with a vowel is always the root, unless it is the phrase connector
འི, and letters with superscripts or subscripts are root consonants.

一个辅音上有元音字母，那就是根字母，除非是 འི
如下上面是元音字母下面是辅音字母，在此中是根
字母。
གི་ 根字母
2. In a 2-consonant syllable with no vowel, the first consonant is always the root.

一个辅音上有上标字或者下标字那么这个辅音字母
也是根字母。
རྐ 上标 根字母 ཀྲ 根字母 上标
 在一个具有两个辅音字母且没有元音字母的字中，
第一个字母是根字母。
例如：
ག བ་ 根字母
3. In a 3-consonant syllable where the last consonant is not ས, the second
consonant is likely to be the root.

如果一个字是由三个辅音字母构成且最后一个字母
若不是 ས ，则中间的那个字母即第二个最可能是根
字母。
གསལ་ /tsla/ གནས་ /nla/
For example:

例如： གསལ་ /tsla/ གནས་ /nla/

但是当末尾出现 ས 时中间的字母不一定是根字母。
例如： ལགས་/lag/ 从这个发现最末尾是 ས 所以根字母
是第一个字母。
4. In a 4-consonant syllable, the second consonant is always the root.

在一个具有四个辅音字母的字中，第二个辅音字母
是根字母。
2.3.2 Descriptions of Non-root Elements ...

2.3.2.1 Prefixes ...

A prefix (སྔོ་འཇུག་) appears to the left of the root consonant, and is one the following 5
letters: གདབམའ
སྔོ་འཇུག་ 即前缀（prefix），放在第一个位置，即放在根字
母前面，通常有五个字母，分别是 ག ད བ མ འ
Characters in the prefix position are not pronounced, but de-aspirate aspirated root characters and
give a higher tone value to nasal root characters. The consonantག g may occur
before 11 root characters, ད d before 6, བ b before 10, མ m before 11, and འ a
before 10.

Examples: འཁོར་ལོ་ 'khor-lo kor-lo (wheel), བསད་ bsad sɛ́ (killed).

2.3.2.2 Suffixes ...

Suffixes (རྗེས་འཇུག་) appear to the right of the root letter, and are usually one
of the following 10 letters: ག ང ད ན བ མ འ ར ལ ས

Characters in the suffix position have one of the following effects:

1. add their own sound ( ག ང བ མ འ ར ) དག་ , eg. dag dag (I).

2. modify the root's vowel value ( ད ས ), eg. བསད་ bsad sɛ́ (killed).
3. both of the above ( ན ལ ), eg. བདུན་ bdun dỳn (seven).
2.3.2.3 Secondary Suffix ...

Secondary suffixes ( ཡང་འཇུག་ appear to the right of other suffixes

) .

ཡང་འཇུག་ 即后后缀（secondary suffix），放在后缀字母后的字母。通常只有两个 。

即： དས
Only two characters can appear in the secondary suffix location, according to Tibetan
ས ད
grammar, and , and the latter is no longer officially found in modern Tibetan. A
character in this position adds no sound and nor does it affect the sounds in the rest
of the syllable.

Examples: བསྒྲུབས་ bsgrubs ɖɹúb (established), and གྱུརད་ gyurd kjùr

(became).
2.3.2.4 Superscripts ...

A superscript (མགོ་ཅན་) appears above the syllable's root, and is one of

the following characters: ར ལ ས

མགོ་ཅན་ 即上标字（superscript），放在根字母上面，通常有三个字
母 。即： ར ལ ས

The three characters that appear in the superscript location raise the tone pitch of the
syllable, but are not pronounced themselves. Each superscript character can only be
used with a specified set of root characters.

རྐ ka རྒ ga རྔ ŋa རྗ ʤa རྙ ɲa རྟ ta
ར

རྡ da རྣ na རྦ ba རྨ ma རྩ tsa རྫ dza
ལྐ ka ལྒ ga ལྔ ŋa ལྕ ca ལྗ ʤa ལྟ ta
ལ

ལྡ da ལྤ pa ལྦ ba ལྷ lha
སྐ ka སྒ ga སྔ ŋa སྙ ɲa སྟ ta སྡ da
ས

སྡ na སྤ pa སྦ ba སྨ ma སྩ tsa
Figure 7 Tibetan superscripts.
Note that RA has a shape slightly different from its nominal shape in all

combinations except རྙ and རླ. You should still use the normal RA Unicode
character for the superscript. The font will make the needed adjustments to the shape.

2.3.2.5 Subscripts ...

A subscript (འདོགས་ཅན་ can be one of the following four characters ྲ ྱ ླ ྭ

) :

འདོགས་ཅན་ 即下标字（subscript），放在根字母下面。即右
边两个： ྲ ྱ ླ ྭ
The four characters that can appear in the subscript location are also each combined
with a particular subset of root characters and have different effects.

ྱཀྱ kja ཁྱ kʰja གྱ gja པྱ cja ཕྱ cʰja བྱ ʤja མྱ ɲa ཧྱ hja

ཀྲ tra ཁྲ tʰra གྲ dra ཏྲ tra ཐྲ tʰra དྲ dra ནྲ na
ྲ
པྲ tra ཕྲ tʰra བྲ tra མྲ ma སྲ sa ཧྲ hra
ླཀླ la གླ la བླ la རླ la སླ la ཟླ da
ཀྭ ka ཁྭ ka གྭ ga ཉྭ ɲa དྭ da ཙྭ tsa ཚྭ ʧa
ྭ
ཞྭ zʰa ཟྭ za རྭ ra ལྭ la ཤྭ ʃa ཧྭ ha
Figure 8 Tibetan subscripts

Note that three of the subscripts have shapes that are significantly different from the
nominal shape of the character they represent. Uniquely, WA can also appear as a
གྲྭ
sub-subscript as in ་ grwa.
 The Hundred-Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva
To meditate on Vajrasattva is the same as to meditate upon all the buddhas. His hundred-syllable
mantra is the quintessence of all mantras.-Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Vajrasattva’s mantra is a powerful purification prayer that invokes the mindstreams of all the
buddhas. Khenpo Sherab Sangpo suggests that his students recite this mantra 21 times or more each
day.

Sanskrit: oṃ vajrasattva samayam anupālaya vajrasattva tvenopatiṣṭha dṛḍho me bhava sutoṣyo

me bhava supoṣyo me bhava anurakto me bhava sarvasiddhiṃ me prayaccha sarvakarmasu ca me
cittaṃ śreyaḥ kuru hūṃ ha ha ha ha hoḥ bhagavan sarvatathāgatavajra mā me muñca vajrī bhava
mahāsamayasattva āḥ

English: Oṃ. Vajrasattva, keep your samaya. As Vajrasattva, remain near me. Be steadfast toward
me. Be very pleased with me.  Be completely satisfied with me. Be loving to me. Grant me all
accomplishments. In all actions, make me mind pure and virtuous. Hūṃ. Ha ha ha ha hoḥ. O
blessed one, vajra-nature of all the tathāgatas, do not abandon me. Be of vajra-nature, O great
samaya-being, āḥ.

Tibetan:

OM Syllable of the most supreme exclamation of praise.

BENZAR SATO SA MA YA Vajrasattva’s Samaya

MA NU PA LA YA BENZAR SATO O Vajrasattva, protect the samaya.

TE NO PA TISHTHA DRI DHO ME BHA WA May you remain firm in me.

SU TO KA YO ME BHA WA Grant me complete satisfaction.

SU PO KA YO ME BHA WA Grow within me (increase the positive within me).

ANU RAKTO ME BHA WA Be loving towards me.

SARVA SIDDHI ME PRA YATSA Grant me all the accomplishments,

SARVA KARMA SU TSA ME As well as all the activities.

TSITTAM SHRE YAM KU RU Make my mind virtuous.

HUNG Syllable of the heart essence, the seed syllable of Vajrasattva.

HA HA HA HA Syllables of the four immeasurables, the four empowerments, the four joys, and
the four kāyas.

HO Syllable of joyous laughter in them.

BHA GA WAN SARVA TA THA GA TA

Bhagawan, who embodies all the Vajra Tathāgatas,

BENZRA MA ME MUNTSA Do not abandon me.

BENZRI BHA WA Grant me realization of the vajra nature.

MA HA SA MA YA SATO O great Samayasattva,

AH Make me one with you. Syllable of uniting in non-duality.

Translated by Erik Pema Kunsang in The Light of Wisdom, Volume II.

Sanskrit with extensive English translation:

oṃ vajrasattva The most excellent exclamation of praise, the qualities of Buddha’s holy body,
speech, and mind; all that is precious and auspicious. Vajrasattva, you whose wisdom is inseparable
bliss-emptiness,

samayam anupālaya And whose pledge must not be transgressed, lead me along the path you took
to enlightenment,

vajrasattva tvenopatiṣṭha Make me abide close to your holy vajra mind,

dṛḍho me bhava Please grant me a firm and stable realization of the ultimate nature of
phenomena,

sutoṣyo me bhava Please grant me the blessing of being extremely pleased and satisfied with me,

supoṣyo me bhava Bless me with the nature of well-developed great bliss,

anurakto me bhava Bless me with the nature of love that leads me to your state,

sarvasiddhiṃ me prayaccha Please grant me all-powerful attainments,

sarvakarmasu ca me cittaṃ śreyaḥ kuru Please grant me all virtuous actions and your glorious
qualities,

hūṃ Seed syllable of the vajra holy mind, the heart essence and seed syllable of Vajrasattva,

ha ha ha ha hoḥ Seed syllables of the four immeasurables, the four empowerments, the four joys,
the four kayas, and the five wisdoms,

bhagavan sarvatathāgatavajra You, who are the vajra of all who have destroyed every
obscuration, of all who have attained all realizations, of all who have passed beyond suffering, and
of all who have realized emptiness and know things just as they are,

mā me muñca Do not abandon me,

vajrī bhava Grant me the nature of indestructible union, the realization of your vajra nature,

mahāsamayasattva You, the great pledge being with the holy vajra mind,

āḥ Make me one with you. Syllable of uniting in non-duality.

hūṃ Syllable of the wisdom of great bliss.

Phat Syllable that clarifies the wisdom of inseparable bliss-emptiness and destroys the dualistic
mind that obstructs realization.

Whatever manifestations of realms, palaces and forms there are, peaceful and wrathful deities,
they do not exist on a gross level. They are forms of shunyata endowed with all the supreme
qualities. Therefore, they are known as possessing the aspect of being without self-nature. The
minds of those buddhas are completely filled with the wisdom of unchanging non-dual bliss
emptiness. Therefore, they are known as possessing the aspect of union. Their body, speech, and
mind are eternally filled with the taste of great bliss, free from increase and decrease. Therefore,
they are known as possessing the aspect of great bliss. -Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche