Originally Posted by eric w

tibetan is actually a part of the language family known as "tibeto-burman"
while the script is definitely derived from sanskrit it's different in many ways
the languages are similar, but tibetan is still spoken very widely, though the dialects are mutually incomprehensible...
most likely what you have tattooed on you is central lhasa dialect tibetan, but that all depends on the region of tibet that the monk who wrote the book is from...as far as i understand it the alphabets are still pretty much the same for each dialect the differentiation is on pronunciation, use of honorifics, and grammar usage.

I'd love to talk with any of you on here that are into indo-tibetan studies, I'm a south asian studies dork and will be working in this field for the rest of my natural born life