Dharmapala Thangka CentreIconography


Tibetan Iconography

Tibetan Scripts

U Chen U Me Tsugring Tsugtung Dru Tsa Khyug

Tibetan is written in a script derived from that of Indian Gupta about 600 ce. It has a syllabary of 30 consonants and five vowels; six additional symbols are used in writing Sanskrit words.


Uchen [»headed«; also transliterated as »uchan« or »dbu-can«] style of the Tibetan script is marked by heavy horizontal lines and tapering vertical lines, and is the most common script for writing in the Tibetan language, and also appears in printed form because of its exceptional clarity. When handwritten, it is the most basic form of calligraphy, and must be mastered before moving onto other style.

Ume [or »Uxchen« = »headless«] style is a more cursive script which can be seen in daily correspondence and in other day-to-day life. The feature which distinguishes it the most from u-chan is the lack of the horizontal lines on the top of letters.

Tsugring translates as »long limb« this describes the long slender height of this script style. As most Tibetan script styles, except for Uchen, Tsugring belongs to the ‘headless’ class of styles called »Umeh«.

Tsugtung is similar to Tsugring in style; the main difference is that the letter height is shorted.

Dru-Tsa [or zhuza] style is a variant of Umê but with ujain vowel symbol.

Khyug [or »chuyig« »fast letters«] is a highly abbreviated, fluid, cursive version of »u-me«. It is a common form of handwriting for notes and personal letters

Source: tashimannox.com