It was invented in 1992 by German social worker Sabriye Tenberken.
Despite Tibetan and Dzongkha (Bhutanese) using the same alphabet in print, Tibetan Braille differs significantly from Dzongkha Braille, which is closer to international norms.
Each syllable is rendered in the following order: The invariable consonants are:[3] Several consonants, wa, ya, ra, la, and sa, are provided with forms corresponding to the superscript and subscript positions in print:[4] The assignments for zh and z also match international conventions, as those letters are pronounced like sh and s. Several of the assignments which do not match international braille have the values of German Braille: ⠹ ch for c (ch), ⠚ j for y [j], ⠵ z [ts] for tsh, ⠎ s [z] for z, ⠱ sch [ʃ] for sh [ʃ], ⠮ ß [s] for s. Letters which are not basic to the German alphabet (c, q, x, y) have been reassigned.
The short vowel "a" is inherent in the head (main) consonant, and is not written explicitly.
When a vowel occurs at the beginning of a word, it is carried by a null consonant ཨ ⟨⠁⟩: Digits are as in English Braille.