People & Culture

Roughly 87% of the nearly three million ethnic Tibetan people are nomadic; they have no permanent house. Instead, sheep and goat herders roam from one pasture to another, farming the fast ripening and cold- and drought-resistant qingke, a kind of highland barley. Other crops include wheat, pea, buckwheat and broad bean. In the warmer places in the river valleys, there are potato, turnip, apple and walnut. People also grow rice and cotton in river valleys in southern Tibet where the weather is very warm.

Ninety-five percent of all Tibetans follow the principles of Tibetan Buddhism, believing in reincarnation and attaining salvation by helping others.  A central tenet of Buddhism, is the law of karma, which holds that responsibility for unwelcome actions is born by the person who commits them. Sabriye Tenberken, of Braille Without Borders comments, “Many Tibetans are unaware of the reasons for blindness and base their superstitions about the condition on Buddhist beliefs. They thought that blindness was a punishment for something you had done in your past life. Some people thought that blind people were possessed by demons."

The Tibetan language belongs to the Tibetan sub-branch of the Tibetan-Myanmese language branch of the Chinese-Tibetan language family. The Tibetan script, an alphabetic system of writing, was created in the early 7th century. With four vowels and 30 consonants, it is used in all areas inhabited by Tibetans. At Braille without Borders, Sabriye Tenberken developed a system of translating the Tibetan script into Braille. Now her blind, literate students can open the doors of prejudice and educate others about their desires for a rich and vibrant life.