Clay Sculpture of Thon-mi-sam-bho-ta,Tubo period figural statue,from the Potala Palace,overall height:130 cm

Thon-mi-sam-bho-ta was a famous minister of Tubo bTsan-po Srong-btsan-sgam-po,also called one of the "seven wise ministers"in Tibetan historical records.He went to India to study by order of Srong-btsan-sgam-po.He was proficient in Sanskrit and other languages and had a thorough understanding of Buddhism.After his return to Tubo,based on Indian Sanskrit,sMar-Tibetan and phonologic principles of Tibetan language,he created Tibetan script,which prevailed at that time.He also started to translate Buddhist scriptures.Thon-mi was title of "Tubo scholar"given by Indians.He also confirmed two writing styles:dBu-can and dBu-med.The dBu-can writing style created by him is also called the "Toad Style".He also established eight Tibetan grammar rules.Thirty Praises (Sum-cu-pa)and On Syntactical Functions (rTags-vjug)concerning Tibetan grammar rules are still used as essential Tibetan grammar textbooks.