Marchen Letter Cha

It is the consonant cha in Marchen.

Marchen cha appears in writing for Zhang-zhung, a historic language of western Tibet, and for Tibetan in the Bön religious tradition.

Marchen consonants can stack vertically; vowel signs may sit above, below, or beside a stack. A font must position the whole cluster, so the displayed letter can depend on how its neighbors are shaped.

What does Marchen's early record show?

Bön tradition places it in ancient Zhang-zhung; surviving examples are sparse.

That tradition places Marchen before Buddhism reached Tibet in the seventh century. Unicode describes the script as derived from Brahmi, an ancient writing system. It is distinct from the other named Bön scripts Marchung, Pungchen, Pungchung, and Drusha.

A 2011 Unicode proposal says few pre-modern examples are known and identifies a Zhang-zhung inscription on a bronze seal held at Menri Monastery as one of the earliest. It also records Marchen in Bön literature and architectural inscriptions. Some Pung and Drusha scripts resemble Lantsa, a script used for Sanskrit in Tibetan contexts.