How it works
This Tibetan alphabet chart prints the 30 consonants in rows of four, ka kha ga nga first, each with its Wylie spelling in Latin letters. Another sheet has the four vowel signs.
Read the full guide
Read it across
The letters are learned in rows of four, left to right: ka kha ga nga, then ca cha ja nya. The eighth row has two letters, ha and a. Every consonant is said with the vowel a unless a vowel sign changes it.
What Wylie spelling is
Wylie writes Tibetan with the plain letters of an English keyboard, the same spelling for a letter every time: ཁ is kha, ཞ is zha, and འ is an apostrophe and a. It follows the written letters, not how a word is said today.
- Tibetan puts a small mark called a tsek, ་, after each syllable and no spaces between words.
- The same 30 letters also come as one list down the page, 15 on each side.
Questions and answers
How many letters are in the Tibetan alphabet?
30 consonants. The vowel a is part of every consonant, and four signs written over or under a letter give the vowels i, u, e and o.
What are the Tibetan letters in order?
In Wylie spelling: ka kha ga nga, ca cha ja nya, ta tha da na, pa pha ba ma, tsa tsha dza wa, zha za 'a ya, ra la sha sa, ha a. That is seven rows of four and a last row of two.
How do I get the Tibetan alphabet chart as a PDF?
Press Print the chart and choose Save as PDF as the printer. The chart of 30 consonants is one page, on Letter or A4.
What are the Tibetan vowel signs?
Four marks for i, u, e and o. The marks for i, e and o sit over the letter and the mark for u sits under it: ཨི i, ཨུ u, ཨེ e, ཨོ o.