lama choedak

Tibetan is spoken by approximately ten million people in more than a half a dozen of countries in
the Asian sub-continent including Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, India and South West China. It is
understood by Mongolians who have had traditional monastic education. Tibetan is a member of the
Tibeto-Burman group of languages, but has no great association with Chinese, so it is a mistake to
coin the term 'Sino-Tibetan language family'. Tibetan language with its separate alphabet is a
powerful expression of Tibet's independence. Its written language was based on the 7th century
Gupta script of India and its logical grammar is easy to follow in spite of its close association with
Sanskrit.