A Hackathon for Classical Tibetan

TL;DR

This paper reports on a five-day hackathon where scholars and scientists collaboratively developed linguistic tools and algorithms for Tibetan Buddhist texts, advancing computational resources for this language.

Contribution

It introduces a collaborative hackathon approach to develop foundational NLP tools for Tibetan, including algorithms for alignment, classification, and basic language processing.

Findings

Developed algorithms for intertextual alignment and text classification.

Created initial language tools like stemmer and word segmenter.

Fostered interdisciplinary collaboration for Tibetan NLP.

Abstract

We describe the course of a hackathon dedicated to the development of linguistic tools for Tibetan Buddhist studies. Over a period of five days, a group of seventeen scholars, scientists, and students developed and compared algorithms for intertextual alignment and text classification, along with some basic language tools, including a stemmer and word segmenter.