མཉམ་རུབ་

nyamrup

ONE WORLD. ONE DREAM. FREE TIBET!

Blogs in Tibetan Language
10 Sep 2007 07:15 EDT

Getting Tibetan language available on computers has been a long and difficult process. For the past 10 years or so there have been various specialized software packages for writing in Tibetan on computers, but with no compatibility or standardization between them. Tibetan has been in Unicode for more than 10 years now, but until recently, many technical obstacles stood in the way of using Unicode for working with Tibetan text.

The past couple years have seen a gradual rise in computers’ support for representing Tibetan in Unicode, with limited but growing support on Windows, MacOS X, and Linux. Microsoft’s release of Windows Vista in January has led to a rapid surge in Tibetan-language computing, and by now a large number of websites in Tibetan are beginning to emerge. Unlike the small number of sites that previously included Tibetan-language content, these new sites utilizing Unicode are indexed and searchable in all major search engines, and can much more easily accommodate entry of text by visitors — for example, blog comments.

I’ve been mildly involved in some of this process along the way, and now that Tibetan-language blogs are beginning to emerge, I am devoting an article to publicizing them.

First, if you don't know if your browser can display བོད་ཡིག་ or not, well look and see whether the word I just wrote there, “Tibetan writing”, shows up. If you see a bunch of question marks instead of Tibetan letters, you’ll need to grab a font first. I have an easy-to-use fonts download page from which you should get one of the Unicode Tibetan fonts. TCRC Youtso Unicode is a good choice of font if you’re using pre-Vista Windows since it will work fairly well without any need to upgrade Windows components. If you have the Arial Unicode font installed, you need to open up your fonts folder and remove it first, because it contains incorrect Tibetan characters and will prevent other Tibetan fonts from working.

So, with that out of the way, here are some blogs and forums in Tibetan:

Aside from blogs and the like, here are a few other sites in Tibetan:

An interesting phenomenon is that, so far, a large portion of the Tibetan language material published on the web is actually more like meta-material: that is, information on how to produce and work with Tibetan-language material, as opposed to writings on news and current events, culture, religion, politics, and so forth. However there are a few sites I’ve linked above which are an exception to the rule, and I suspect we’ll quickly begin to see a much broader selection of Tibetan writing on the web as these first pioneers “geek out” and popularize the new tools that are available.

Of course widespread availability of Tibetan language on computers has lots of implications for the future of Tibet. Not only does it begin to make Tibetan a viable language for modern subjects, business, etc. in Tibet; it also carries with it a sense of pride in the language.

Another aspect with great possibilities is the degree of communication these developments may open up within, out of, and into Tibet. With blogs, forums, and — just emerging now — instant messaging and email in Tibetan, there is an unprecedented opportunity for communication between Tibetans (and others who can read Tibetan) inside and outside Tibet, which can only lead to a much greater understanding of one another and the issues each face.

If you want to try out posting on some of these blogs, you’ll need a way to type Tibetan into the computer. I’m working on a page where I’m collecting all the known Tibetan keyboards for easy perusal and download; the THDL also has good resources on this, albeit a bit difficult to navigate.

In case you need some Tibetan computer terminology, for reading the site interfaces or posting about computers, here are a few words I’ve picked up:

ཡིག་གཟུགས།
font
མཉན་ཆས།
software
འབྲལ་ལམ།
link (noun; in a www sense of link)
བབ་ལེན།
download
ཡར་སྤྲོད།
post/upload (verb)
བསུབ།
delete/clear (for example, forms or posts)
དྲ་བ། / དྲ་རྒྱ།
web / world wide web
དྲ་ཚིགས། / དྲ་ངོས།
web site
གློག་རྡུལ།
digital
མཐེབ་གཞོང།
keyboard
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