The modern development of Old Tibetan dictionaries started with F.W. Thomas’ works in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by Li Fang-Kuei and Coblin in 1987. Notable additions include Btsan-Lha's work, Takeuchi's 2008 syllabic index, and An Shixing's 2001 dictionary. Yet still no comprehensive dictionary exists. Joanna Bialek's two-volume Compounds and Compounding in Old Tibetan (2018) is a specialized and respected dictionary in the Anglophone academy. This review discusses two recent Old Tibetan dictionaries, this time coming from within the Tibetan literary tradition.

Kha-sgaṅ (2019) is a significant volume produced under the “Tibetan Language Grand Dictionary” (国家“十二五规划”出版《藏文大辞典》之一) project, part of China's Twelfth Five-Year Plan. Published by the Nationalities Publishing House (Beijing), it spans 496 pages. The chief editor, Professor Khasgaṅ of Northwest University for Nationalities, is a prominent scholar specializing in the study of Dunhuang Old Tibetan historical texts and lexicography. His research focuses on manuscripts from Dunhuang and the compilation of this dictionary reportedly took nearly 20 years, resulting in one of the most comprehensive dictionaries of Old Tibetan available to date. The entries derive primarily from the Pelliot tibétain and IOL Tib J collections of Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts, Old Tibetan inscriptions, cliff inscriptions, manuscripts, and bamboo slips from the Western Regions, along with recently excavated documents from Beijing, Lanzhou, and Tibet. According to the editor's preface, interviews, and explanatory notes accompanying individual entries, many challenging or ambiguous terms in the dictionary are based on Professor Khasgaṅ's personal research and years of interpretation. Thus, the dictionary not only presents a useful collection of linguistic data but also shares the fruits of the author's experience. For example, Khasgaṅ incorporates his own etymology for the ethnonyms va-źa (吐谷浑) and rgya (汉人), published in 2018 and 2023, and suggests that both ultimately derive from Sanskrit ārya. This proposal was also recently proposed by Christopher I. Beckwith (The Scythian Empire, Princeton, 2023, pp. 133–8).

Despite its many merits, the dictionary fails to recognize fully the different historical strata of transcription and the timing of language contact (p. 389). Additionally, inconsistencies are evident in the bibliographic numbering of the Dunhuang documents cited, particularly in the Pelliot tibétain and IOL Tib J collections. These inconsistencies involve discrepancies between old and newly assigned catalogue numbers, complicating cross-referencing efforts. Moreover, the criteria for including entries in the dictionary are not ideal. The dictionary does not adequately capture the distinctive features of Old Tibetan, as many of the terms included, though present in the Dunhuang manuscripts, are also common in classical and even modern Tibetan dictionaries, often with identical meanings. This approach contrasts sharply with Joanna Bialek's Compounds and Compounding in Old Tibetan, which focuses on uniquely Old Tibetan words and compounds. A notable issue is the inclusion of a significant number of common Buddhist terms, such as kun rdzob “covering, concealing. Skt. saṃvṛti”. While some Buddhist terms do exhibit features of Old Tibetan, the dictionary's handling of these entries is often faulty. For example, the term rkyen daṅ vdu ba tshogste byuṅ (p. 17), which represents an early form of the compound rten ciṅ vbrel bar vbyuṅ ba (dependent origination), is incorrectly interpreted. The dictionary fails to clarify that this phrase is a translation of the Sanskrit compound pratītya-samutpādaḥ. Such oversights diminish the usefulness of the work. To enhance its utility, future editions should revise the criteria for entry selection to better reflect the linguistic characteristics of Old Tibetan. Improvements in bibliographic consistency and indexing would also facilitate its scholarly usefulness and ensure a more accurate representation of Old Tibetan lexicography.

Btsan-lha (2023) was compiled by the renowned Tibetan linguist btsan-lha-ṅag-dbaṅ-tshul-khrims over thirteen years (from 1976 to 1989); it stands as a monumental achievement in the field of Tibetan lexicography. Its first edition, published in 1997 at 1,632 pages, was widely acclaimed within the Tibetan literary community and extensively used by international scholars. Since then the work has been an indispensable reference for Old Tibetan and Tibetan language studies within the global Tibetan Studies community. In 2023, a greatly expanded edition of the dictionary was released, expanded to 1,928 pages. The 1997 edition cited 352 ancient texts, whereas the 2023 edition has increased this to 414 texts, incorporating several additional collections. These texts span a wide variety of genres, including Buddhist scriptures, historical narratives, biographies, rhetorical works, inscriptions, orthography, legal documents, Bon texts, grammatical treatises, tally-sticks, medical texts, literature, poetry, letters, and more. Among these, 19 texts are Dunhuang manuscripts, inscriptions, and excavated Silk Road documents. A distinctive feature of the dictionary is its heavy reliance on the indigenous lexicographical tradition including “lists of old and new terminology” (brda-gsar-rñiṅ). The dictionary also includes a significant number of ancient Tibetan terms from legal texts. The richness and characteristics of the entries in this dictionary are too extensive to be fully described. One notable feature is the dictionary's comprehensive inclusion of terminology from the Vinaya texts of Tibetan Buddhism. Although academics do not typically regard Buddhist Vinaya scriptures as references for the study of Old Tibetan vocabulary, Btsan-Lha recognizes their antiquity. Notably, Nathan W. Hill's recent research corroborates the value of the terminology found in such documents (“Origin of the r- allomorph of the Tibetan causative s-”, in Schaeffer et al. (eds), Histories of Tibet, New York, pp. 106–14). With its comprehensive scope and scholarly rigour, the Btsan-lha dictionary will continue to be a cornerstone of progress for researchers.

A notable enhancement to the 2023 edition is the inclusion of page numbers for many cited sources, though some references still lack this information. Another important improvement is the introduction of annotations indicating the source language of specific terms. These annotations include labels such as [legs] for Sanskrit, [źaṅ] for źaṅźuṅ, [rgya] for Chinese, and [bon] for Bon, offering valuable context for the etymological origins of the entries. Despite these advancements, the dictionary still has some shortcomings: neither the old nor the new editions provide an index of entries, making navigation somewhat cumbersome; as mentioned, many references still lack page numbers; and in the bibliography of the new edition, while additional references have been included, the publication details for most cited works remain unspecified. Although the 2023 edition is a substantial improvement on an already excellent work, addressing these remaining issues in future editions would further enhance its value.