Tibetan Keyboards
བོད་ཡིག་མཐེབ་གཞོང་སྐོར༎

Introduction
གླེང་བརྗོད༎

This site provides a common place to obtain all free Unicode keyboards and input methods (aka IMs or IMEs) for enterring Tibetan text. Font-based legacy input methods are not included because I’m so tired of receiving documents from people who don’t know better and trying to convert them to something I can read. If you really need legacy input methods/keyboards you can obtain them from the THDL website, Lobsang Monlam’s site, etc.

དྲ་ངོས་འདི་ནི་རྒྱལ་སྤྱི་ཚད་ལྡན་ “Unicode” བོད་ཡིག་གི་མཐེབ་གཞོང་དང་ནང་བླུག་ཐབས་ཤེས་ ༼IM དང་ IME ཟེར་མཁན་༽ བབ་ལེན་ས་ཡོད། འདི་ན་རྣམ་གྲངས་རྙིང་པའི་ཡིག་གཟུགས་ཀྱི་མཐེབ་གཞོང་ མེད། དེ་དགོས་ན་ THDL དང་ སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་དྲ་ངོས་ དེ་སོགས་ནས་ ལེན་ཐུབ་ས་རེད།

For Windows 2000/XP/Vista

• Tibetan Standard (Windows Vista/CNS) keyboard for Windows 2000/XP/etc., created with MSKLC by Rich Felker (me). Untested, might need minor fixes. This is not needed if you have Windows Vista; it’s included with the OS. Documentation on this layout can be found in English and in Tibetan at Tashi Tsering’s site.
• Dzongkha layout keyboard created with MSKLC by Chris Fynn.
• TISE, which allows you to enter Tibetan text by typing the Wylie [EWTS] transliteration. See official site here.
• Sambhota 1 work-alike keyboard by Chris Walker. This is NOT the Sambhota software but rather a keyboard which enables one to enter Unicode Tibetan using the layout familiar to Sambhota users. Before using this you must first install “Keyman”. The free version seems to have been discontinued and no longer available from Tavultesoft, but LanguageGeek.com has an old version available for download.
• Sambhota 2 work-alike keyboard by Chris Walker. Just like the above, this needs Keyman installed first.
• Monlam Bod-yig v2 — is this really a Unicode keyboard or not?

For X Window System (Linux/BSD/*nix)

• Tibetan Standard (Windows Vista/CNS) keyboard for the X Window System, using XKB, by Rich Felker (me). Install it as bo (with no extension) in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols (location may vary on old/strange systems) and activate with the setxkbmap command or your favorite graphical XKB configuration program. Newer versions of X.org will include this keyboard in the standard distribution, but under a different name: cn(tib).
• Dzongkha keyboard layout for X Window System/XKB. You do not need to download this file unless you’re curious to read it; it has been included in the standard X.org distribution for a long time.
• UIM, through m17n-lib, makes various Tibetan input methods available, but installation is OS- and distribution-specific. Use your system’s package manager if you want to install these input methods. Beware that (as of Summer 2007) m17n-lib’s notion of what is “Wylie” is rather incorrect and probably not what you expect.

For Linux Console

• Tibetan Standard (Windows Vista/CNS) keyboard for the Linux console, by Rich Felker (me). Load using loadkeys; the Caps_Lock key switches between whatever your original layout was (US or other Latin-based keyboard) and Tibetan. Note that this is probably not useful unless you have a console terminal capable of displaying Tibetan, such as uuterm.

For Macintosh

The following are for MacOS X (and later?). If you’re using an older Mac there’s really no hope of communicating with Unicode Tibetan.

• Wylie and Dzongkha layout keyboard/IM, by Chris Walker. Visit the official site for instructions in both English and Tibetan.

Sadly there seem to be no other layouts (Standard, TCRC, Sambhota, etc.) available for Mac.

Documentation

Most Tibetan keyboards have incomplete or no documentation available on the web. I will eventually fill in this section as I find documentation on the layouts I’m not yet familiar with.

Links
འབྲེལ་ལམ༎

These other sites may be useful to visitors attempting to obtain Tibetan input software:

• Tibetan & Himalayan Digital Library tools
• ...add more...

Contact
འབྲེལ་བ་བྱེད་རོགས༎

My name is Rich Felker and you can reach me by email at dalias@aerifal.cx. Please feel free to write if you have questions on using the above software. If you write in Tibetan, PLEASE use Unicode, otherwise I probably will not be able to read your message.

ངའི་མིང་ལ་Rich Felker ཟེར་གི་ཡོད། གློག་འཕྲིན་གྱི་ཁ་བྱང་ dalias@aerifal.cx རེད། མཉན་ཆས་འདི་སྐོར་དྲིས་བ་ཡོད་ན་ང་ལ་འཕྲིན་པ་བསྐུར་གནང། ཡིན་ནའང་ Unicode བེད་སྤྱོད་བྱེད་ན་ མ་གཏོགས་ངས་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་འཕྲིན་པ་ཀློག་ཐུབ་ས་མ་རེད།