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བོད་ཡིག་- Bod Yig QuickStart Tibetan fonts BodYig and Unicode BodYig on computer BodYig on the web tech words add

Why is Tibetan language important? . . . . . . → → →

One of the main parts of culture is its language. When the language dies, the real culture dies; it lives on only in museums.

"Language shapes the way we think and determines what we can think about."
  — Benjamin Lee Whorf (American linguist)

“Many years ago the Party Committee Chairman Wan Li already expressed that those ethnic minorities that never had any written language also don’t need any written language today; and those minorities that do have a written language should just let it die out, our entire system uses one unified language, which is Mandarin, the Han language. And I very much agree with his opinion.”
  — Beijing cadre in Tibet, 2002

"If we emphasise the importance of the Tibetan language, we will be accused of narrow nationalism, and the government's official line reads: the higher the level of the Tibetan language, the stronger the religious consciousness and as a result the stronger reactionary behaviour."
  — Tibetan writer Tashi Tsering, 2002

From Woeser: If Tibetans took to the streets for Tibetan language (like Chinese are doing for Cantonese in Guangdong).

“If both the spoken and written language of a people die, then it is as if the entire population of that people has died and the people have been decimated.”
  — Letter by 133 Amdo teachers, to Qinghai Provincial Government, 15 October 2010

“The Tibetan people will remain alive as distinct from other nationals as long as the Tibetan language exists.”
     — Kalon Tripa Prof Samdong Rinpoche

Computers are a big part of the world culture. This is where people are talking to each other today. If Tibetan is not used in the world of computers: on websites, in operating systems, in technical language [PDF 1.2M], then Tibetan culture won't be part of that world.

What is this website for?

This site is a resource for technical aspects of BodYig on computers, and to download fonts. Much of the general info here is being moved to the much more useful wiki at DigitalTibetan.org

Bod-Yig QuickStart The how-tos to get you knowing how

Tibetan fonts Download them, and learn more about how they work

Download Tibetan fonts

About Tibetan fonts [See all files]

Follow these links for more information:

  • Tibetan font info page on this site.
    Best known Tibetan fonts, other Tibetan fonts, comparison and discussion.
  • What is Unicode? We try to explain.
  • Links to useful Unicode information. august 2010
  • Links to useful internationalisation (i18n) information. august 2010
  • Links to general info about fonts. august 2010

→ See all General Tibetan font info files

More about Tibetan Unicode fonts If you want to know everything about Tibetan fonts!

Not all Unicode fonts contain all the necessary Tibetan characters. The most useful, according to what i read, are:

  • Microsoft Himalaya (available on Windows Vista, and can be downloaded for XP)
  • Arial Unicode MS - http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/fonts.html#arialunicodems
  • TCRC YoutsoWeb - http://www.popdic.com/dict_tibetan.htm
    (TCRC Youtsoweb is mentioned on many sites as one of the most complete Unicode Tibetan fonts ... but it is not offered for download on tibet.net or tcrc ... you have to go to that popdic.com site to get it. Don't know why!)
    (NOTE: TCRC Youtsoweb is *not* the same as TCRC Youtso. (TCRC Youtsoweb is a Unicode font. TCRC Youtso, which you do get at tibet.net, is not a Unicode font.)

These fonts are supposed to be pretty complete:

  • Tibetan Machine and Tibetan Machine Web - http://iris.lib.virginia.edu/tibet/tools/fonts.html
  • TibetanMachineUni - On linux, can install through your linux Package Manager.
  • Most of the Monlam fonts are supposed to be Unicode, but there is question if they are all complete and correct Unicode. Please help add more info!

A search on Google for tibet unicode font will turn up much information. Some of the more accessible are below:

Learning about Tibetan Unicode

  • Dharma Dictionary
    A big wiki with Tibetan-English Dictionary, Dharma Glossaries, and Resources
  • Getting Started with Unicode Tibetan
    At the famous Tibetan-Himalayan Digital Library
  • Tibetan on the Web
    About the Tibetan Script, Browser and Font Recommendations, Typing Tibetan Text, Web Development, Language Code: bo, Tibetan Unicode Chart, link to tibetan unicode test page
  • Tibetan Portal
    All kinds of information! like: subtitles in Tibetan music videos, Fixing Firefox in Ubuntu for Tibetan, How to convert old documents to newer font ...
    Plus you can display the site in Tibetan, and it seems to be able to detect which fonts you have, and you can choose among them for the display.
  • Tibetan Unicode
    All about Tibetan Unicode, at the Dharma Dictionary site.

Using Bod-yig on computer [See all files]

Using Bod-yig on computer is no different than using any other font: You need to know the keyboard in order to type the font. You can share your documents with other people if they have the same font.

But, you say, it is different! Yes, you are right. But it is only different because many computers do not have a Tibetan keyboard or font. Or an Arabic keyboard or font. Or a Mongolian keyboard or font. Or many others — that's all!

So to type in their own language, most people need to add two things:

  • A "keyboard input program".
  • Their own language font.

Here's some information on how to do that:

Using Bod-yig on the web [See all files]

On the web it is a bigger problem. Anyone with a browser can come to your web page, and if they don't have a Tibetan font on their computer, your page looks pretty bad.

There are things we can do to help. And even better things are coming the next couple years here now: @font-face and hosted fonts! Explanation coming as soon as i can get it posted.

There are several ways to use bod-yig on your web pages, but the first and best way, is to always use a Unicode font. Then anybody who has *any* other Unicode font can see your Tibetan.

→ See all Bod-Yig on the Web files: at Tibetan Geeks, at DigitalTibetan.

Good info on other websites

  • How to Use Monlam 3
    Flash movie, by Sonam Dawa
  • On the Goodness of Unicode, by Tim Bray of Sun Microsystems
    "From Unicode's point a view, text is stored on a computer as a series of numbers, one per character. There are many different ways to arrange these numbers ... These are called 'encodings'."
  • Tibetan font info page at Sonam Dawa site.
    Explains about installing and using Tibetan fonts, with links to more info.

Websites in Tibetan Some websites all made in Tibetan fonts. There are many more!

Websites about Tibetan literature Some websites of organisations preserving and spreading Tibetan culture and Buddhism

  • TBRC, Tibetan Buddhism Resource Center
    A registered non-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation, organization and dissemination of Tibetan literature. Using the latest technnological solutions, and a dedicated team of scholars, engineers, librarians, and technicians, TBRC aims to make the extraordinary literature of the Tibetan people available to all.
  • THL, The Tibetan and Himalayan Library
    A publisher of websites, information services, and networking facilities relating to the Tibetan plateau and southern Himalayan regions. THL promotes the integration of knowledge and community across the divides of academic disciplines, the historical and the contemporary, the religious and the secular, the global and the local.

Tibetan tech language

  • Standardizing Tibetan Terms of IT [PDF 1.2M]
    by China Tibetology Research Center, 2006
    A big file of almost 3,000 IT words and phrases, in Tibetan, English and Chinese.
    This is made by the Project of Standardizing Tibetan Terms of Information Technology, at the China National Center for Tibetan Studies. It was eventually published as The Dictionary of Tibetan Information Technology Terminologies.
    (We are in the process of adding all the words in this file to the online dictionary.)

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