Home›Sources›Tibet: A HistorySourcesTibet: A HistoryCitation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "Tibet: A History." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/tibet-a-history.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). Tibet: A History. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/tibet-a-historyCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-tibet-a-history, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {Tibet: A History}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/tibet-a-history}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXSam van Schaik's history covers Tibet's political and religious history including Songtsen Gampo's reign and the traditional account of Thonmi Sambhota creating the Tibetan alphabet, working from the documented historical record while naming the Thonmi Sambhota story specifically as a traditional account rather than an independently verified fact. That explicit distinction between documented history and traditional attribution is the book's real evidentiary discipline. This record has not independently traced further scholarly response since 2011. Use it for established historical facts about Tibet and the traditional account of the script's origin; a claim needing the script's own specific linguistic detail needs a dedicated linguistic source.FactsClaims Backed By This Source (243 claims)Comments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)FactsAssessmentReliability TierWell-attested1Sam van Schaik's standard scholarly history covering Tibet's political and religious history, naming the Thonmi Sambhota alphabet-creation story specifically as a traditional account rather than an independently verified fact, an explicit distinction that is the book's real evidentiary discipline.NotesWell-attestedSam van Schaik's standard scholarly history of Tibet, covering its political and religious history including the reign of Songtsen Gampo and the traditional account of the creation of the Tibetan alphabet by Thonmi Sambhota. Use for established historical facts about Tibet and the Tibetan script's origins; a general history, so a claim about a specific Tibetan letter's linguistic detail may need a source focused specifically on the script.CitationAuthorWell-attestedSam van SchaikPublisherWell-attestedYale University PressPublication YearWell-attested2011URLWell-attestedhttps://archive.org/details/tibethistory0000vansSource TypeWell-attestedacademic monographClaims Backed By This Source (243 claims)This source backs 243 claims across the atlas. As facts: 156 well-attested, 10 scholarly debate, 2 open question. As cited relationships: 24 holds, 2 connected. Plus 49 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.Disposition By TopicAlphabet Letters, 102 claims: 68 well-attested, 34 general references.Open Questions, 25 claims: 19 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 connected, 3 general references.Figures, 24 claims: 16 well-attested, 3 scholarly debate, 3 holds, 2 general references.Articles, 21 claims: 19 well-attested, 1 connected, 1 general references.Historical Figures, 21 claims: 10 well-attested, 5 scholarly debate, 2 open question, 1 holds, 3 general references.Cities, 13 claims: 6 well-attested, 6 holds, 1 general references.Cultures, 11 claims: 4 well-attested, 6 holds, 1 general references.Spread Events, 11 claims: 4 well-attested, 6 holds, 1 general references.Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.Regions, 3 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 general references.Councils and Synods, 2 claims: 1 scholarly debate, 1 general references.Scripts & Magical Alphabets, 2 claims: 1 scholarly debate, 1 general references.Well-attested156Alphabet LettersTibetan A ཨTibetan A Chung འTibetan Ba བTibetan Ca ཅTibetan Cha ཆTibetan Da དTibetan Dza ཛTibetan Ga གTibetan Gi Gu ◌ིTibetan Greng Bu ◌ེTibetan Ha ཧTibetan Ja ཇTibetan Ka ཀTibetan Kha ཁTibetan La ལTibetan Ma མTibetan Na ནTibetan Na Ro ◌ོTibetan Nga ངTibetan Nya ཉTibetan Pa པTibetan Pha ཕTibetan Ra རTibetan Sa སTibetan Sha ཤTibetan Ta ཏTibetan Tha ཐTibetan Tsa ཙTibetan Tsha ཚTibetan Wa ཝTibetan Ya ཡTibetan Za ཟTibetan Zha ཞTibetan Zhabs Kyu ◌ུArticlesA Capital Built Around a Buddha ImageAn Alphabet From the Dharma's HomelandBuddhism, Bon and the Religion of the PlateauEmpire, Exile and a Civilization Carried AbroadHow Buddhism Became Established at the Tibetan CourtIdentified with the Green TaraSamye and the First Tibetan MonksSudden and Gradual at SamyeThe Buddhist King Made LaterThe Debate at SamyeThe Empire He AssembledThe Letters of the Kangyur and the Mani StonesThe Mission to India, as the Histories Tell ItThe Nepali Princess Who Married a Tibetan KingThe Palace on the Red HillThe Plateau, and What Height Made PossibleShowing 1 to 50 of 63 entities carrying this claim. NextScholarly debate10Councils and SynodsThe Council of LhasaFiguresBhrikutiTrisong DetsenHistorical FiguresSongtsen GampoThonmi SambhotaScripts & Magical AlphabetsTibetanOpen question2Historical FiguresThonmi SambhotaHolds24CitiesLhasaCulturesTibetansFiguresTrisong DetsenHistorical FiguresThonmi SambhotaOpen QuestionsWhen did Thonmi Sambhota die?When was Thonmi Sambhota born?Spread EventsBuddhism Reaches TibetConnected2ArticlesHow Buddhism Became Established at the Tibetan CourtOpen QuestionsWhich Indic script is the direct model for the Tibetan alphabet, and was it the work of one designer?General References49Alphabet LettersTibetan A ཨTibetan A Chung འTibetan Ba བTibetan Ca ཅTibetan Cha ཆTibetan Da དTibetan Dza ཛTibetan Ga གTibetan Gi Gu ◌ིTibetan Greng Bu ◌ེTibetan Ha ཧTibetan Ja ཇTibetan Ka ཀTibetan Kha ཁTibetan La ལTibetan Ma མTibetan Na ནTibetan Na Ro ◌ོTibetan Nga ངTibetan Nya ཉTibetan Pa པTibetan Pha ཕTibetan Ra རTibetan Sa སTibetan Sha ཤTibetan Ta ཏTibetan Tha ཐTibetan Tsa ཙTibetan Tsha ཚTibetan Wa ཝTibetan Ya ཡTibetan Za ཟTibetan Zha ཞTibetan Zhabs Kyu ◌ུArticlesHow Buddhism Became Established at the Tibetan CourtCitiesLhasaCouncils and SynodsThe Council of LhasaCulturesTibetansFiguresBhrikutiTrisong DetsenHistorical FiguresSongtsen GampoThonmi SambhotaTurrell V. WylieOpen QuestionsWhen did Thonmi Sambhota die?When was Thonmi Sambhota born?Which Indic script is the direct model for the Tibetan alphabet, and was it the work of one designer?RegionsTibetScripts & Magical AlphabetsTibetanSpread EventsBuddhism Reaches TibetComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year