Marchen letter ba

It is Marchen’s ba consonant. In a written syllable, the base consonant carries an inherent “a” vowel unless a vowel sign changes it; several consonants can stack vertically. Marchen wrote Zhang-zhung in Bön texts; later Bön writing also uses it for Tibetan.

Traditional accounts connect Marchen with Zhang-zhung before Buddhism reached Tibet around the seventh century. An inscription on a bronze seal kept at Menri Monastery is discussed as an early example, but its date and authenticity are disputed.

Why does Marchen look like Tibetan but work differently?

Marchen is a distinct script with links to Tibetan. It belongs to a Bön script group that also includes Marchung, Pungchen, Pungchung, and Drusha. Marchen shares some subjoined forms—consonant shapes placed below another letter—with Tibetan and Lantsa, another script.

Marchen uses a Tibetan-style stacking system but has no intersyllabic tsheg, the mark that separates written syllables. Boundaries can be unclear in running text; a zero-width space, an invisible boundary character, can mark a break when needed. The lower form 𑲠 is the subjoined ba, a stack component rather than another base letter.