written.institute
༠༡༢༣༤༥༦༧༨༩

Tibetan numerals

A place-value system in base 10, with a zero.

StructurePositional — a digit's value depends on the column it sits in
Base10
ZeroYes — a true zero, holding an empty place
RegionTibet, Bhutan, the Himalayan plateau
Dateswith the script, from the 7th c. CE
UnicodeU+0F20–U+0F29
Status living

Curatorial note

Decimal and positional, taken with the script from the Indic world in the seventh century. Tibetan also encodes a set of half-digits used in older astronomical and administrative writing — a fractional notation with no equivalent in the other sets on this floor.

Specimen

The digits, at size
56 ༠༡༢༣༤༥༦༧༨༩
40 ༠༡༢༣༤༥༦༧༨༩
26 ༠༡༢༣༤༥༦༧༨༩
17 ༠༡༢༣༤༥༦༧༨༩

Where this sits

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