Lepcha Letter Gla

It starts a syllable with the consonant cluster g followed by l. In Latin-letter spelling, gla names this onset; its l is built into this Lepcha letter rather than added as a separate medial. A vowel sign supplies the syllable's vowel, and a final-consonant sign can close it.

Where did the Lepcha script come from?

The Lepcha script developed from Tibetan writing, then took its own path. Lepcha tradition credits the scholar Thikúng Men Salóng with creating it; another account places its development around 1720 under Sikkim ruler Chakdor Namgyal. The earliest dated manuscripts in the surviving record are from 1846.

Buddhist missionary activity may have helped motivate its codification. Lepcha writings include prayers, blessings, stories, moral instruction, and religious works. After Lepcha gained official-language recognition in Sikkim in 1977, school and college textbooks followed. Lepcha is written across India, Nepal, and Bhutan.

The Tibetan-derived model was written vertically; Lepcha reshaped it for left-to-right lines. Early comparisons connect Lepcha's final-consonant signs, placed beside the base letter, with similar patterns in Limbu (Kirat) writing, but leave the direction of influence unresolved.