Tibetan calligraphy refers to the calligraphic

Calligraphy

Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...

 traditions used to write the Tibetan language

Tibetan language

The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...

. As in other parts of East Asia, nobles, high lamas, and persons of high rank were expected to have high abilities in calligraphy. However, unlike calligraphy in China, Japan

Japanese calligraphy

is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. For a long time, the most esteemed calligrapher in Japan had been Wang Xizhi, a Chinese calligrapher in the 4th century but after the invention of Hiragana and Katakana, the Japanese unique syllabaries, the distinctive...

, and Korea, calligraphy was done using a reed pen as opposed to a brush. Nevertheless, East Asian influence is apparent visually, as Tibetan calligraphy is at times more free-flowing than calligraphy involving the descendants of other Brahmi

Brahmic family

The Brahmic or Indic scripts are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout South Asia , Southeast Asia, and parts of Central and East Asia, and are descended from the Brāhmī script of the ancient Indian subcontinent...

 scripts.

A variety of different styles of calligraphy existed in Tibet:

• The u-chan
  Uchen script
  Ujain is the upright, block style of the Tibetan alphabet. The name means "with a head," and is the style of the script used for printing and for formal manuscripts.It is used to write both the Tibetan language and Dzongkha, the official language of Bhutan....
  
  style of the Tibetan script
  Tibetan script
  The Tibetan alphabet is an abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Denzongkha, Ladakhi language and sometimes the Balti language. The printed form of the alphabet is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday...
  
   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 styles.
• The u-me
  Umê script
  Umê is a cursive form of the Tibetan alphabet. The name means "headless," and is a style of the script used for both calligraphy and shorthand. A distinctive feature of umê compared to uchen is the absence of the horizontal guide line across the top of the letters. Between syllables, the tseg mark...
  
  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.
• The drugtsa style is a version halfway between u-chan and u-me.
• The tsugtung style is shortened, abbreviated variant of u-me, traditionally used for commentaries.
• The chuyig is a highly abbreviated, fluid, cursive version of u-me. It is a common form of handwriting for notes and personal letters.
• The petsug style is a narrow, cursive variant of u-me in squarish shape.
• The vertical Phags-pa
  Phagspa script
  The Phags-pa script was an alphabet designed by the Tibetan Lama 'Gro-mgon Chos-rgyal 'Phags-pa for Yuan emperor Kublai Khan, as a unified script for the literary languages of the Yuan Dynasty....
  
   script is known as horyig . A more ornamental version of the horyig style was used in the past to make personal seals. It is often found written vertically as opposed to horizontally.

These styles are not fixed, and are not limited to those listed above. By mixing features of various styles, and adding various ornaments to the text, the number of styles becomes quite large. While u-chan may be used to write entire Sutra

Sutra

Sūtra is an aphorism or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. Literally it means a thread or line that holds things together and is derived from the verbal root siv-, meaning to sew , as does the medical term...

s or Buddhist texts, the rest of the styles are more frequently used to write a single phrase or saying.

External links

• An exhibition of Tibetan Calligraphy by Jamyang Dorjee Chakrishar
• Interview with Tsering Phuntsok, a Tibetan calligrapher living in Germany.
• Andrew West
  Andrew West
  Andrew Christopher West is an English Sinologist. He initially devoted himself to studying Chinese novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties...
  
  , Phags-pa script
• Tibetan writing styles
• Exquisite Example of Tibetan Calligraphy by His Holiness The XVII Karmapa
• An exhibition of Tibetan Calligraphy by P. N. Dhumkhang
• Contemporary Tibetan calligraphy by Tashi Mannox