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The first portion of the Bible, the [[Gospel of John]], in a [[Tibetic language]] was translated by [[Moravian Church]] missionaries William Heyde, Edward Pagel, and [[Heinrich August Jäschke]], and later Dr. [[August Hermann Francke (Tibetologist)|August Francke]]. It was printed in 1862 at [[Keylong|Kyelang]] capital of [[Lahaul|Lahul]] in Kashmir. The whole New Testament was printed in 1885 in [[Ladakh]]. Another version was translated in 1903. So as not to have the problem of various dialectal differences it was translated into classical Tibetan, but this was not understood by most people. [[Yoseb Gergen]] (aka Sonam Gergen), a Tibetan Christian translated the entire Bible, complete in 1935. This version was translated into a dialect of Tibetan Gergen had accidentally stumbled across, and which was understandable by all Tibetans. It was finally published in 1948.<ref>''God Spoke Tibetan'', by Alan Maberly, http://www.nwtv.co.uk/pages/arts/books/books/tibet/chap01.htm</ref> This is known in India as the Tibetan OV Bible.<ref>(Tibetan Edition) (9788122115451)</ref> Eliya Tsetan Phuntshog published a New Testament in 1970. There is currently a project going on to translate the Bible into the East Tibetan dialect.<ref name="gSungrab">http://www.gsungrab.org/ Central Tibetan Bible Website</ref>

== Dialectal Variation and Register ==
[[File:Tibetan Languages in India and Pakistan minor correction.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Western Tibetan languages]]
Recent research has shown there are approximately 50 Tibetan languages and over 200 varieties of Tibetan.<ref name="Tournadre">Nicolas Tournadre, 2014 "The Tibetic Languages and their classification" In Nathan W. HIll and Thomas Owen-Smith (eds.) Trans-Himalayan Linguistics, Historical and descriptive Linguistics of the Himalayan area, 105-129. Mouton de Gruyter</ref>

The complex task of translating the Scriptures into the different varieties of Tibetan is made more difficult by the need to choose between different linguistic [[Register (sociolinguistics)|registers]]. These are: the high literary register (the language used for the Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, also known as {{lang|bo|ཆོས་སྐད}} {{transliteration|bo|chos skad}}); the mid literary register (a mixture of high literary and some known common spoken and non-spoken words); and one of many varieties of the low register (the vernacular/spoken language), which are specific to particular regions.<ref name="Green">{{cite web|url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/25/97/22/25972228094121828277416194632503321089/silesr2012_019.pdf|title= R.Jeffery Green, 2012, "Amdo Tibetan Media Intelligibility" by Electronic Survey Report 2012-019, SIL International DigitalResources |publisher=}}</ref>

There are advantages and disadvantages of translating into each different register. A translation into one of the varieties of the low register will be easily understood in one specific region but its geographical reach will be limited,<ref name="auto">Heinrich August Jaeschke: Pioneer Tibetan Scholar, by John Bray, The Tibet Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Spring 1983), pp. 50-55, Published by: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives</ref> and it will be seen as less prestigious than the high and mid registers. Mid Literary is more difficult to understand than the spoken language but has a wider geographical reach. The high literary register can reach even further geographically but it requires people first to learn a literary language in order to understand what is written in it.<ref name="Green"/><ref name="auto"/>

== History of translations into Mid and High Literary registers ==
The [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] missionary [[Heinrich August Jäschke|H. A. Jäschke]] (1817–1883) spent three months in [[Ladakh]] in 1857, and subsequently worked in [[Keylong]] (Lahul) until 1868. He studied the spoken languages of the region. However, he decided to translate the [[New Testament]] into [[Classical Tibetan]], drawing on the assistance and advice of speakers and scholars of different forms of Tibetan in both the [[Western Himalaya]]n region and [[Darjeeling]]. He hoped that his choice of language would ensure that the written text would be widely understood across Tibet and the Himalayan border regions.<ref name="ladakhstudies.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.ladakhstudies.org/ialsresources/downloads/rrol3download_files/7RROL3bray.pdf|title=A History of the Moravian Church's Tibetan Bible Translations by John Bray|publisher=|access-date=2018-04-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220070412/http://www.ladakhstudies.org/ialsresources/downloads/rrol3download_files/7RROL3bray.pdf|archive-date=2016-12-20|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Jäschke's successor F. A. Redslob (1838–1891) completed the translation of the New Testament in 1885. Between 1898 and 1902, a committee chaired by another Moravian missionary A. W. Heyde (1825–1907) prepared a revised version of the Tibetan New Testament under the sponsorship of the [[British and Foreign Bible Society]].<ref name="ladakhstudies.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.ladakhstudies.org/ialsresources/downloads/rrol3download_files/7RROL3bray.pdf|title=A History of the Moravian Church's Tibetan Bible Translations by John Bray|publisher=|access-date=2018-04-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220070412/http://www.ladakhstudies.org/ialsresources/downloads/rrol3download_files/7RROL3bray.pdf|archive-date=2016-12-20|url-status=dead}}</ref> Later, [[August Hermann Francke (Tibetologist)|Dr A. H. Francke]] (1870–1930) and his Ladakhi colleague Yoseb Gergan (1878–1946) translated the [[Old Testament]] into Classical Tibetan. The draft translation of the Old Testament was completed by 1935, but the full Tibetan Bible was not published until 1948.<ref name="ladakhstudies.org"/>

In 1959, [[Eliyah Tsetan Phuntsog]] (son-in-law of Yoseb Gergan) <ref name="ladakhstudies.org"/> started to revise the New Testament with Pierre Vittoz (a Swiss missionary). They translated it into a Mid Literary register, hoping that this would be accessible to the various Tibetan-speaking peoples in both India and Tibet. This version was published in 1970.<ref name="ladakhstudies.org"/> However, most of the Ladakhis who were not trained in the Literary register found all these versions difficult to understand.<ref name="ladakhstudies.org"/>

In 2011, a Tibetan Old Testament (TOT11) was completed, attributed to the [[Nepal Bible Society]].<ref name="TOT11">{{cite web |title=Tibetan Old Testament 2011 (TOT11) - Download the Free Bible App - Download now or read online. - Android - iPhone/iPad |url=https://www.bible.com/versions/1712-tot11-tibetan-old-testament-2011 |accessdate=31 January 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="DBL" />

A translation of the New Testament into modern "low literary" Tibetan, often called the [https://www.bible.com/ur/versions/2378-ctb-radiant-light-to-the-ends-of-the-earth Central Tibetan Bible] (CTB), and released in 2018 under the subheading {{lang|bo|༄༅།།འཛམ་གླིང་མཐའ་གྲུ་གསལ་བའི་འོད་སྣང་།}} (Wylie: {{transliteration|bo|ISO|'dzam gling mtha' gru gsal ba'i 'od snang}}) "Radiant Light to the Ends of the Earth", and printed by Central Asia Publishing, as well as being available digitally.<ref name="gSungrab"/> The rights to the Bible are held by the [[Wycliffe Bible Translators]].<ref name="DBL">{{cite web |title=Digital Bible Library |url=https://qa.thedigitalbiblelibrary.org/entries/public_entries?type=text |website=qa.thedigitalbiblelibrary.org |accessdate=31 January 2020}}</ref>

In 2019, a translation of the New Testament was released as the New Tibetan Bible (NTB) in a form of literary Tibetan, available digitally.<ref name="New-Tibetan-Bible">{{cite web |title=Home |url=http://new-tibetan-bible.com/index.php/en |website=new-tibetan-bible.com |accessdate=31 January 2020}}</ref> Rights to this are also held by the Wycliffe Bible Translators.<ref name="DBL" />

==Translations into Ladakhi==
[[Ladakhi language|Ladakhi]] is a language spoken in India in regions bordering both [[China]] and [[Pakistan]]; its neighbouring languages are [[Purik language|Purik]], [[Balti language|Balti]], [[Zangskari dialect|Zanskari]], Nubra, and the more divergent [[Changthang language|Changthang]] (see map). All these languages are part of the Western Tibetan language grouping<ref name="Tournadre"/><ref name="ethnologue.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/lbj/|title=Ethnologue: Ladakhi language|publisher=}}</ref><ref>Bettina Zeisler, 2007 "On the position of Ladakhi and Balti in the Tibetan language family" In: John Bray and Nawang Tsering Shakspo (eds.) Recent research on Ladakh 2007. Leh: J & K Academy for Art, Culture & Science, International Association for Ladakh Studies: 27-33.</ref> and quite distinct from the [[Central Tibetan language|Central]], [[Amdo Tibetan|Amdo]] and [[Khams Tibetan]] spoken varieties.

Alongside his main Tibetan translation work, Jäschke translated the ''Harmony of the Gospels'', a selection of texts used by the Moravian church in Easter Week, into vernacular Ladakhi. He noticed that the Ladakhi Christians were more attentive when listening to the Harmony, than they were when they heard texts written in the High Register of Classical Tibetan.<ref name="ladakhstudies.org"/>

Like Jäschke, Francke put his main efforts into Bible translation into literary Tibetan. However, he also emphasised the need to translate at least some portions of the Bible into the spoken languages of the region.<ref name="Francke">Francke, A.H. 1910. “Die Sprachenfrage in der west-tibetischen Mission der Brüdergemeine.” Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift 37, pp. 412-420; pp. 448-454. Berlin.</ref> In 1907, he printed a revised version of Jäschke's ''Harmony''. He also prepared a Ladakhi ''Life of Christ'', and in 1908, he published a Ladakhi version of [[Mark's Gospel]].<ref name="Francke"/> Yoseb Gergan produced a revised version of the Ladakhi St Mark, and this was published at [[Lahore]] in 1919.<ref name="ladakhstudies.org"/>

These early vernacular translations adapted the classical literary spelling system rather than using a phonetic transcription of spoken Ladakhi. In the early 1950s, E. T. Phuntsog experimented with a greatly simplified spelling system for writing Ladakhi.<ref name="Bray 2">John Bray "Towards a Tibetan Christianity? The Lives of Joseph Gergan and Eliyah Tsetan Phuntsog. In Tibetan Studies Vol. 1, pp 68-80, Edited by Per Kvaerne. Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 1994</ref> However, he ran into opposition from a segment of the Ladakhi community who wanted to preserve the classical spelling system of the Buddhist Scriptures. Phuntsog translated excerpts from the Gospels of St Mark and St Luke using this script. However, his proposals were never accepted outside the small Christian community, and he was forced to put them on one side.<ref name="Bray 2"/>

Today there is an ongoing project to translate the complete Bible into the low register of spoken Ladakhi (Zhung/Leh dialect)<ref name="ethnologue.com" /> using a more phonemic spelling structure.<ref name="LadakhiBible">{{cite web|url=http://www.ladakhibible.org/en/news/|title=Ladakhi Bible Translation News|publisher=}}</ref> Currently the New Testament and Genesis 1-16 have been completed.<ref name="LadakhiBible"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bible Translations (Tibetan)}}
[[Category:Tibetan language]]
[[Category:Christianity in China]]
[[Category:Bible translations by language|Tibetan]]
[[Category:Religion in Tibet]]

Bible translations into Tibetan - Revision history

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