STANDARDISATION OF TIBETAN EQUIVALENTS OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL TERMS

STANDARDISATION OF TIBETAN EQUIVALENTS OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL TERMS!

STANDARDISATION OF TIBETAN EQUIVALENTS OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL TERMS!

S.L. Sharma Research Scholar Deptt. of Central Asian Studies Punjab University Chandigarh

At present, Tibet is passing through one of the most crucial periods in the history of nations. The people living on the “roof of the world” are a mute witness to the Chinese brand of cultural revolution which aims at decimating its age-old social institutions maintained and cherished since times immemorial. This determined onslaught on the rich cultural heritage of the ‘Land of the Snows’ is impregnated with dangerous consequences with far-reaching ramifications.

As a part of their ‘operation demolition’ of religious and cultural fabric of Tibet, the Chinese have now started distorting and deforming the original character of Tibetan language by injecting Chinese elements into it. I am afraid we cannot halt this sinification or reverse the trend of transformation of cultural landscape of Tibet, because “language is not a static factor” not withstanding the fact that “language loyalty has often been characterised as primodial loyalty.”

The Chinese are engaged in the task of coining their own term in Tibetan so as to cater to the needs of modern scientific advancements. This newly formed terminology is highly biased in favour of Chinese genius and is causing utter confusion in the minds of Tibetologists in particular and Tibetans in general. The Tibetans in exile are likely to be influenced by such distorted literature which is totally alien to their genius and temperament. The periodicals and other related literature being produced in Tibetan language in India and abroad are freely using the Chinese terminology unmindful of the fact that this trend will effect the future generation too.

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བོོད་ཀྱིི་བོརྡ་སྤྲོོད་རིིག་གནས་སྐོོརི་གྱིི་བོགྲོོ་གླེེང་ཚོོགས་འདུའི་དཔྱད་རྩོོམ་ཕྱོོགས་བོསྒྲིིགས། Under these circumstances, a great responsibility devolves on the shoulders of Tibetan scholars to neutralise this trend of linguistic contamination by coining such powerful terminology that meets the needs of communication and at the same time have the capacity to absorb the impact of cultural changes wrought by industrial, multi-religious, multi-racial and multi-lingual society.

“Knowledge has been divided into about six hundred special branches” and this number is swelling day by day as new frontiers of knowledge are being opened at an alarming speed. Information explosion has engulfed us and we are being bombarded with new disciplines of knowledge. Computer science, genetic engineering environmental sciences, bio-technology, space science, to name few, are new additions to an ever-expanding sphere of our knowledge.

In this perspective, standardisation and formation of scientific and technical terminology is a great challenge to the ingenuity of Tibetan mind. In this connection, a few observations are made for the consideration of learned scholars participating in this seminar.

When the Lo-tsabas undertook the gigantic task of translating Buddhist canon into Tibetan, one of the greatest problems before them was that of technical terminology. They had to investigate and analyse Tibetan terms more suitable and appropriate to the original meanings, forging a new language capable of great subtlity and depth. On the other hand, the Lo-tsabas had the option of translating straight away original Sanskrit terms alongwith their verbal roots and suffixes in tote and adopting them as Tibetan equivalents for the purpose of technical terms. They choose this method because they found it more convenient to translate Sanskrit-terms instead of coining new Tibetan equivalents needed for translation. It is suggested that while standardising scientific and technical terminology, a good quantum of which already stands standardised, we would adopt the methodology, technique, and tools employed by the celebrated Lo-tsabas.

For fabricating new terminology we cannot look towards any language except Sanskrit because Tibetan has all along derived its sustenance from Sanskrit in matters of literary and religious expression. Sanskrit has tremendous capacity of word-building. Building material consists of three elements (a) verbal roots, (b) suffixes, and (c) prefixes. There are hundreds of Tibetan verbal roots and they can be fully exploited for forging new technical and scientific terminology. Similarly, Tibetan suffixes have great potentiality of creative terminology. However, one of the greatest sources of new terms happens to be prefixes. There are original Tibetan prefixes as well as Sanskrit prefixes translated into

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STANDARDISATION OF TIBETAN EQUIVALENTS OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL TERMS! Tibetan. Sanskrit prefixes are either “independent bearers of meaning” or “illuminante of the meaning immanent” in the verb. They are even “cooperants”. In the formation of new terms the prefixes can be utilized in due measures. In this connection, I would Like to draw the attention of scholars to a work on Tibetan prefixes (Vimshati, by K. Angrup. published by the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. Varanasi, 1985). It is a brillant exposition of Sanskrit prefixes as translated into Tibetan, and some Tibetan original prefixes independent of Sanskrit. This work can prove a good guide to the scholars for the coinage of terminology.

To start with, like ancient Lo-tsabas we should prepare glossaries of different subjects containing Tibetan equivalents. These provisional glossaries should be cyclostyled and circulated amongst the scholars for seeking their opinion and advice. After thorough revision and incorporating amendments suggested by the scholars, these glossaries can be compiled into dictionaries of Humanities and Sciences, in due course of time.

For this purpose, necessary infrastructure has to be developed and services of linguists, anthropologists, administrators, educationists, social scientists etc. will have to be requisitioned. In this connection, a commission for scientific and technical terminology has to be constituted to monitor and supervise this gigantic task. In the begining a working group consisting of three or four scholars should be assigned the task of studying the working of commission for scientific and technical terminology set up by the Government of India.

We should also approach and seek guidance from International organisation for standardisation and International Information Centre for terminology which are engaged in determining the concepts and principles of technical terminology.

The Tanjur, in its encyclopaedic range, covers most of the disciplines grouped under Humanities and Sciences, In humanities group, the Tanjur contains such subjects as philosophy, metaphysics, ethics, logic, literature, social sciences, aesthetics, psychology, history, administration, architecture, music, history of arts, sculpture etc. Under the category of sciences, we have chemistry, alchemy, metallurgy, horticulture, astronomy, astrology, weather science, mathematics, bio-chemistry, pharmachology, anatomy, pathology, preventive medicine, veterinary science, etc. Which are included in the Tanjur, We can easily adopt technical terminology used in such works without going in for new coinage for writing original works as well as for translation of standard works from other languages.

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བོོད་ཀྱིི་བོརྡ་སྤྲོོད་རིིག་གནས་སྐོོརི་གྱིི་བོགྲོོ་གླེེང་ཚོོགས་འདུའི་དཔྱད་རྩོོམ་ཕྱོོགས་བོསྒྲིིགས། The work of coinage and standardization is really stupendous. It is a continuous process and glossaries of different subjects prepared for the first time can not be regarded as final. They have to be constantly revised and reviewed at frequent intervals till they are accepted by the Tibetan intelligentsia as effective tools for expression of new concepts being thrown up by everexpanding frontiers of knowledge.

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