Classical Tibetan in the context of "Old Tibetan"

The bhavachakra (Sanskrit: भवचक्र; Pāli: bhavacakka; Tibetan: སྲིད་པའི་འཁོར་ལོ, Wylie: srid pa'i 'khor lo) or wheel of life is a visual teaching aid and meditation tool symbolically representing saṃsāra (or cyclic existence). It is found on the walls of Tibetan Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Indo-Tibetan region, to help both Buddhists and non Buddhists understand the core Buddhist teachings. The image consists of four concentric circles, held by Yama, the lord of Death, with an image of the Buddha pointing to the moon metaphorically representing the possibility for liberation from the suffering of reincarnation.

Buddhist texts are religious texts that belong to, or are associated with, Buddhism and its traditions. There is no single textual collection for all of Buddhism. Instead, there are three main Buddhist Canons: the Pāli Canon of the Theravāda tradition, the Chinese Buddhist Canon used in East Asian Buddhist tradition, and the Tibetan Buddhist Canon used in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism.

The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, found in Pakistan and written in Gāndhārī, they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The first Buddhist texts were initially passed on orally by Buddhist monastics, but were later written down and composed as manuscripts in various Indo-Aryan languages (such as Pāli, Gāndhārī, and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit). These texts were collected into various collections and translated into other languages such as Buddhist Chinese (fójiào hànyǔ 佛教漢語) and Classical Tibetan as Buddhism spread outside of India.

Early Buddhist texts (EBTs), early Buddhist literature or early Buddhist discourses are parallel texts shared by the early Buddhist schools. The most widely studied EBT material are the first four Pali Nikayas, as well as the corresponding Chinese Āgamas. However, some scholars have also pointed out that some Vinaya material, like the Patimokkhas of the different Buddhist schools, as well as some material from the earliest Abhidharma texts could also be quite early.

Besides the large collections in Pali and Chinese, there are also fragmentary collections of EBT materials in Sanskrit, Khotanese, Tibetan, and Gāndhārī. The modern study of early pre-sectarian Buddhism often relies on comparative scholarship using these various early Buddhist sources.

In Buddhism, an āgama (आगम Sanskrit and Pāli, Tibetan: ལུང་ (Wylie: lung) for "sacred work" or "scripture") is a collection of early Buddhist texts.

The five āgama together comprise the Suttapiṭaka of the early Buddhist schools, which had different recensions of each āgama. In the Pali Canon of the Theravada, the term nikāya is used. The word āgama does not occur in this collection.

Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan is a standardized dialect of Tibetan spoken by the people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

In the traditional "three-branched" classification of the Tibetic languages, the Lhasa dialect belongs to the Central Tibetan branch (the other two being Khams Tibetan and Amdo Tibetan). In terms of mutual intelligibility, speakers of Khams Tibetan are able to communicate at a basic level with Lhasa Tibetan, while Amdo speakers cannot. Both Lhasa Tibetan and Khams Tibetan evolved to become tonal and do not preserve the word-initial consonant clusters, which makes them very far from Classical Tibetan, especially when compared to the more conservative Amdo Tibetan.

The Kingdom of Sikkim (Classical Tibetan and Sikkimese: འབྲས་ལྗོངས།, Drenjong, Dzongkha: སི་ཀིམ་རྒྱལ་ཁབ།, Sikimr Gyalkhab) officially Dremoshong (Classical Tibetan and Sikkimese: འབྲས་མོ་གཤོངས།) until the 1800s, was a hereditary monarchy in the Eastern Himalayas that existed from 1642 to 16 May 1975, when it was annexed by India. It was ruled by Chogyals of the Namgyal dynasty.

The Tibetic languages are a branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages in the Sino-Tibetan language family. Descending from Old Tibetan, there are 50 recognized Tibetic languages, which branch into more than 200 dialects, which could be grouped into eight dialect continua. These Tibetic languages are spoken in parts of China (Tibet, Aksai Chin), Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan), Nepal, Bhutan and India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim). Classical Tibetan is the major literary language, particularly for its use in Tibetan Buddhist scriptures and literature.

Tibetan languages are spoken by some 6 million people, not all of whom are Tibetan. With the worldwide spread of Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan language has also spread into the western world and can be found in many Buddhist publications and prayer materials, while western students also learn the language for the translation of Tibetan texts. Outside of Lhasa itself, Lhasa Tibetan is spoken by approximately 200,000 exiled Tibetans who have moved from Tibet to India, Nepal and other countries. Tibetan is also spoken by groups of ethnic minorities in Tibet who have lived in close proximity to Tibetans for centuries, but nevertheless retain their own languages and cultures.

Songtsen Gampo (Tibetan: སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ, Wylie: srong btsan sgam po); (605–649 CE, reign 618-649) was the 33rd Tibetan king of the Yarlung dynasty and the founder of the Tibetan Empire. The first of three Dharma Kings of Tibet, he formally introduced Buddhism to Tibet and built the Jokhang with the influence of his queen Bhrikuti, of Nepal's Licchavi dynasty. He unified several Tibetan kingdoms, conquered lands adjacent to Tibet, and moved the capital to the Red Fort in Lhasa. His minister Thonmi Sambhota created the Tibetan script and Classical Tibetan, the first literary and spoken language of Tibet.

His mother, the queen, is identified as Driza Thökar (Tibetan: འབྲི་བཟའ་ཐོད་དཀར་, Wylie: 'bri bza' thod dkar, ZWPY: Zhisa Tögar). The exact date of his birth and his enthronement are not certain, and in Tibetan history it is generally accepted that he was born in an Ox year of the Tibetan calendar. According to Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa, he ascended the throne at age thirteen, in 614, and reigned at least until 648.

The Testament of Ba or the Chronicle of Ba(Tibetan དབའ་བཞེད or སྦ་བཞེད; Wylie transliteration: dba' bzhed or sba bzhed) is a Tibetan chronicle written in 8th century Classical Tibetan documenting the establishment of Tibetan Buddhism and the Vajrayana, Samye Monastery and the Samye Debate, and notable events and people in Tibet's history. Written during the Tibetan Empire period, it covers the reigns of kings Songsten Gampo, Trisong Detsen (r. 755–797/804), and the years after Rapalchen's reign. The monk Ba Salnang (Tibetan སྦ་གསལ་སྣང; Wylie transliteration: sba gsal snang) of the Ba Family was the main recorder of the Chronicle who used other scribes and members of the kings' courts.

In 2008, early versions of the text were said to have been discovered in London, where two manuscript fragments possibly dating to the 9th or 10th centuries are held by the British Library.

The Tang - Tibetan Empire Treaty Inscription (Tibetan: གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་མདུན་གྱི་རྡོ་རིངས་, Wylie: gtsug lag khang mdun gyi rdo rings; simplified Chinese: 唐蕃会盟碑; traditional Chinese: 唐蕃會盟碑; pinyin: Táng-Bō Huìméng Bēi) is a stone pillar standing outside the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The inscription is written in both Tibetan and Classical Chinese, concerning the Changqing Treaty between the Tibetan Empire and Tang Empire in A.D. 821/823. Amy Heller's book Tibetan Art describes it as one of the most important treaties between the Tang and Tibetan Empire. Inscription states the relationship of Tang and Tibetan Empire as uncle and nephew of same family.

The Jinsha River (Chinese: 金沙江; pinyin: Jīnshājiāng; lit. 'Gold Sand River', Tibetan: Dri Chu, འབྲི་ཆུ, Yi: ꀉꉷꏁꒉ, romanized: Axhuo Shyxyy) is the Chinese name for the upper stretches of the Yangtze River. It flows through the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan in western China. The river passes through Tiger Leaping Gorge.

It is sometimes grouped together with the Lancang (upper Mekong) and Nu (upper Salween) as the Sanjiang ("Three Rivers") area, part of which makes up the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas.

Khams Tibetan (Tibetan: ཁམས་སྐད, Wylie: Khams skad, THL: Khamké), Kham dialect is the Tibetic language used by the majority of the people in Kham. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being Amdo Tibetan and Ü-Tsang Tibetan). In terms of mutual intelligibility, Khams could communicate at a basic level with the Ü-Tsang branch (including Lhasa Tibetan).

Both Khams Tibetan and Lhasa Tibetan evolve to not preserve the word-initial consonant clusters, which makes them very far from Classical Tibetan, especially when compared to the more conservative Amdo Tibetan. Also, Kham and Lhasa Tibetan evolved to be tonal, which Classical Tibetan was not. Khams Tibetan has 80% lexical similarity with Central Tibetan.

Turrell Verl "Terry" Wylie (August 20, 1927 – August 25, 1984) was an American scholar, Tibetologist, sinologist and professor known as one of the 20th century's leading scholars of Tibet. He taught as a professor of Tibetan Studies at the University of Washington and served as the first chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Literature. Wylie founded the Tibetan Studies program at the University of Washington, the first of its kind in the United States, setting a major precedent for future programs and research in the field. His system for rendering the Tibetan language in Latin script, known as Wylie transliteration, is the primary system used for transcribing Tibetan in academic and historical contexts.