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Concept

Classical Tibetan

Overview

Classical Tibetan (Tibetan: ཆོས་སྐད།, Wylie: chos skad, Lhasa Tibetan pronunciation in IPA: /t͡ɕʰøː˥˥.kɛː˥˨/, literally "doctrine language" or "religious language"), sometimes called Chöke in Bhutan, is a liturgical language of Tibetan Buddhism that dates from the 9th century. It particularly refers to the language of early canonical texts translated from other languages, especially Sanskrit. It is one of the handful of 'living' classical languages along with Arabic, Ge'ez, and New Persian, though it meaningfully differs from Modern Standard Tibetan.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

  1. But by sacred things one must not understand simply those personal beings which are called gods or spirits; a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word, anything can be sacred. A rite can have this character; in fact, the rite does not exist which does not have it to a certain degree.

    Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

    States what Classical Tibetan is.

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  2. These languages consist of monosyllabic words which follow one another in direct succession without any intermediate inflectional elements to modify their meaning. Philologists usually call such languages 'root-languages,' because a sound complex that carries the essential meaning of a word, apart from all modifying elements, is called by their science a verbal root.

    Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind

    States what Classical Tibetan is.

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  3. 36 b), 1700 (7936 b). This version is almost identical with that edited by Augustinus Justinianus, Paris, 1520, and is based on Ḥarizi’s Hebrew version of the Moreh. The name of the translator is not mentioned. In the Commentary of Moses, son of Solomon, of Salerno, on the Moreh, a Latin translation is quoted, and the quotations agree with this version. It is called by this commentator ha ʻataḳat ha-noẓrit (“the…

    Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed

    States what Classical Tibetan is.

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Philosophers who discussed Classical Tibetan

Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Buddhist philosophy.

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