Importance of Bhoti Language

Lama Stanzin Nurboo,

Leh: Generally, over the centuries, the gracious effort undertaken by precious generations, on the basis of which the world has produced several refined cultural entities. Each entity has its custom, language, educational system, etc. They altogether lend unique features to make it separate. But language has a great role to retain the influences acquired over a period of time, so to enrich and preserve its distinctiveness. Tibet and the northern Himalayan regions from Ladakh to eastern Arunachal Pradesh have their distinctive cultures but intrinsically bond by over-riding feature of their Bhoti language.

This language has enacted as an anchor to establish communication within the vast Himalayan terrain along with its role to act as a container to hold the rich cultures, spread far and wide across the Himalayan regions. Initially, Bhoti or Tibetan language was invented by Thumi Sambhota in Tibet and has now equal proprietorial claim over it by people from diverse political entities like Tibet, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, west Bengal, Sikkim, Bhutan, inner and the outer Mongolia. Unless the script is employed to communicate in local languages, it can be well understood by everyone in its colloquial form for all its native speakers.

Bhoti language has been much appreciated by different eminent scholars, as they found in their effort to get translated some of the most subtle Buddhist concepts from different source languages, but this language stands out thanks to its capability of storing the Buddhist concepts in its intact form. The reason they attribute for its unique attribution of having each syllable couched with its fix meaning. This facilitates to translate some of the rare Buddhist texts into Sanskrit without any incongruence crept into it.

Unfortunately, the importance of this language has been lost on its native speakers, as they are more enchanted by western learning. This flirtation with western culture and learning is so intense and has spread far and wide across the whole areas. The equal share of blame must be driven home to those who transplant the younger generations to subsist on the western education at the cost of indigenous learning. If this trend continues to play out in unchecked manner, it would eventually push the Bhoti language to extinction.

Along this trend, fortunately the silver lining comes from those who pause and rewind the journey and ponder over it. They at the end draw attention to amend such remiss. But this constitutes a small number of people, and their effort amounts to nothing if further support is not extended to them.

Support must come from different power centers of the Society form the smallest unit if the society as family and from the power corridors of the society ,so to give space to grow this language and spread across the areas, thus can connect they can connect themselves to their cultures .

The state Bhoti Language

It has been almost now 1350 years that Bhoti or Tibetan language as such has flourished all over with its own distinctive element as a language. That language is commonly and widely used in Himalayan region with minor variation in spoken aspects, the Bhoti language, with its unique feature commands Respect in all the texts three provinces. This language, as the name suggests, is derivative through the course of its long span of civilization maintaining its presence in all aspects of Tibetan life. The entire Tibetan cultural outlook owes its survival to the sheer forceful impact of the language which has not only sustain it but also given it an impetus to explore varied rank of human knowledge of which the metaphysical knowledge, its religion has propounded, has remain in its most uncorrupted state. Buddhist commentaries and treatises and numerous other compendiums are all written in Bhoti or Tibetan language. The comprehensiveness and the depth and the wide range of human thought and emotion can be lucidly transcribed with its subsequent implications of the term well maintained and preserved.

There is another light being shed with regard there is another dimension which gives entirely a different historicity of the year of its origin. Ladakh dates back the foreign of the language to the appearance of Lotsawa Rinchan Zangpo in the 11th century. Hitherto to which no mention of the language is cited in the annals of Nonetheless, there is a general consensus among Ladakhis of the appearance of and its flourishment in the region to the 8th and 9th century but unfortunate it may be many in the region still fail to associate and relate to the Tibetan script not to talk about its cognition aspect and the complexity with which it is stuffed with, such a dismal state of affair naturally prompts one to put to cognition as to what results in this paramount paralysis. Such renouncement in necessitated by the sheer lack of interest which is further accentuated by ignorance put the very scion to which Ladakhis draw their sustenance from into a utter negligence, even though the region is proud to have given birth to many virtuous people with unparallel acumen in intellect who demonstrated high degree of sense of morality. Unless a timely and concerted action is heralded, a danger looms large signaling its further dilution and disappearance in today’s world.

Thumi sambohta is an emanation of Manjushiri, God of knowledge. Though his premonition he realized that the sustainability of Buddha Dharma largely rested upon the creation of scripts uniquely different and are capable of retaining the religion’s doctrinal complexity in its most essential nature, his hilarious embankment to Kashmir in search of the appointed task let him to trail on inhospitable region infested with brigands and wild animals. His unmatched patience accompanied by firm resolution had eventually born fruit with partly innovated form of the scripts existing then, into a palatable to the Tibetan tongue thus four vowels and thirty alphabets as it stand today had greatly benefited the people in exchanging ideas and opinions changing from ordinary day to day business transaction to navigation highly intangible concepts to common understanding making the life culturally rich and spiritually sublime.

Apart from the significance of the part it plays in communication aspect it has strengthened Tibet’s divergent region into a unified statehood which in itself can be hallowed as an exceptionally great achievement. The cultural affinity that like shares with its neighboring countries like India [Arunachal Pradesh, Bhutan and sikkim] in its entirety is a finely refined resultant of the language that all fell love into. The Bhoti language has unified and found all the region lying outskirts take into a homogenous whole and closely woven into a rich tapestry the Bhoti language has fostered.

Language ,in its course of development ,seems to slowly losing its vitality against the advent of material whose diabolic tentacle have  numbed the senses of people ,who fail to appreciate the import of the language .People have fallen prey to ,with the rise of material affluent ,traditional customs and conventions become weak and docile . The obdurate attitude of people reflects marks the danger on the anvil. The moral and ethical erosion in our present society points direction to this effect.

So, much so that the limited application of the lexicon to substitute to mean the English word is rampant for everyone to see. Signs of cultural degeneration seem to have already begin to show in Leh city with many youngsters displaying unrestricted and uncensored proclivities towards glamour and attraction they feel western clothes embedded with. It looks like cultural consciousness to grip the masses into its tentacle.

The gap or the lacuna is slowly and gradually but imperceptibly paving into oblivion and the day is not far where they would feel one’s own culture exotic and alien. This cultural degeneration is conspicuous in diverse forms. The inhibition to use one’s own language while greeting and talking to each other is as stark and indigestible tendency that points to its degeneration. Such gesture is prevalent in all ranges of human activity. Even the offices are in sorry state which in many ways reflects the language on the verge of disappearance.

It is ironical to state that people fail to exchange their views and opinions in a language one grew up with. The functional aspect of language can only be sustained and enriched through using it in all occasions. The revival is possible only when a reverse trend is geared to with consistent and collaborative effort, from the people of all sections in a society.

There is no shortcut to give the language its holy place back. Language is very dynamic in nature, its dynamism can be felt through and enriched by conferring to it the position it has held before. For instance, transaction being made in the offices should be done in one’s own language, is an indispensable step towards realization of the goals in question. The significance of the language has upon the society must be realized by the youngsters before the language dies out and are left with no identity to cling with.  The language has in it all the potent to grow and flourish. The reverse is all true if not taken care of. Even the region dialect or colloquial language which is on the verge of dying, this is exemplified through the usage of English and Hindi in their conversation.

Having known the generative significance language has upon Ladakh, the youngsters and all alike must rethink about where they would be if language ,the most potent and dynamic of all factors finally withers away in the oblivion and cornered in the ebb where no accessible is coming. If go by the present trend, the day is not far when we have to re learn our language from other

Source: reachladakh.com/importance-of-bhoti-language/