King Gesar: Dreaming Legends

Today, we’ll talk about King Gesar, the world’s longest epic that has been passed down orally among Tibetans for over a thousand years, and these days, the story has been recognized for its invaluable historic qualities and mysterious cultural inheritors. 

Transcript

King Gesar: Dreaming Legends

Today, we’ll talk about King Gesar, the world’s longest epic that has been passed down orally among Tibetans for over a thousand years, and these days, the story has been recognized for its invaluable historic qualities and mysterious cultural inheritors. 

In Beijing, on June 20, a Tibetan man named Sithar Dorje from Chamdo in Xizang Autonomous Region chanted a few lines from the Epic of King Gesar while dressed in a traditional two-layer vermilion Tibetan costume matched with a distinctive beige pointed cap.

Seemingly unaffected by the summer heat, the tightly clad 36-year-old performed vigorously on stage promoting Chamdo cultural at the Site of the Former Beijing Mongolian-Tibetan School, a retreat from the city’s bustling Xidan Commercial Street.

After his performance, Sithar told The Context, “I hope more people in Beijing can get to know Gesar through my shows.”

As the longest epic in the world, King Gesar was inscribed as an intangible cultural heritage at the national level in 2006 and by UNESCO in 2009. While telling the mythological king’s gallant fights against various demons both on Earth and in hell, the epic displays a kaleidoscope of ancient Tibetan’s religious, social, and cultural lives that thrived from disintegration to unity.

In more than 20 million Tibetan characters from over 1 million verses incorporated into about 120 volumes, the Epic of King Gesar, which is often compared to Homeric epics in the West, has been better preserved by publications and digitalization over the past few decades.

Still, as those who can memorize the epic and perform it in Tibetan make their living and get their education from doing so, inheritors like Sithar have more opportunities to dive deeper into the ancient legends, though their memories of the Epic are said to take shape in the form of dreams, but more on that later.

Divided into three major parts – Gesar’s descent on Earth, fights against devils, and re-ascendance to heaven – the Epic is a romantic and philosophic work reflecting the profound culture and history in and beyond the Xizang Autonomous Region.

As the legend goes, when King Gesar was born in a tent at the foot of a mountain, the clouds above turned red and petals fell amid the rumble of thunder. The scene foretold the uniqueness of a savior descending to Earth to bring to an end the trials and tribulations of the various peoples dwelling on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.

Despite this romantic birth, the true origin of Gesar has been hotly debated in academic circles. According to Sithar, who is also an associate research fellow at Tibet University in Lhasa, capital of Xizang, some believe the archetype of Gesar was a real person born in the 11th Century when Xizang was in separation following the collapse of the Tubo Kingdom, lasting from 633 to 842. However, many others believe the Epic originated much earlier.

Jampel Gyasto, director of the research center of Gesar, the Institute of Ethnic Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told The Context that “Although there is no consensus reached on when the Epic of King Gesar was created, it has been generally agreed that the legacy dates farther back than Buddhism’s introduction to Xizang.” 

According to the official History of Buddhism first published during China’s Yuan Dynasty by Tibetan Buddhist Master Bu-ston who lived from 1290 to 1364, the Buddhist scriptures were first introduced to Xizang during the reign of Lha Thothori Nyantsen around the 4th century at the Yarlung district in today’s southeastern part of Xizang. But the religion was not formally established until some three centuries later during the reign of Songtsan Gampo, founder of the Tubo Kingdom, who lived from 617 to 650.

Before the spread of the Buddhism, the popular religion practiced by ethnic Tibetans was Bon, the ancient shamanist religion.

Due to Bon’s emphasis on the mysterious, powerful and invincible forces of nature, there became ubiquitous homages paid by heroes in the Epic to snow-capped mountains, lucid lagoons and meandering rivers.

For instance, when King Gesar was about to vanquish the Kingdom of Menyül, he promptly turned to Yulha Toju, the prince he had won over while defeating Sadain, an evil ruler of the State of Jiang, asking him to tell the names of all surrounding mountains following his hints.

Yulha answered in great preciseness and his simultaneous responses comprised the famous lines entitled “Odes to the Mountains” in the Epic.

Scholar Tashi Dondrup wrote in his article titled Thoughts on the Ecological Beauty of the Epic of King of Gesar, published in February by the academic journal Tibetan Art Studies that “Surrounded by the precipitous cliffs and undulating mountain ranges, the prairies dotted with tents and houses look like a star-studded sky... The exceptionally splendid landscape in Xizang has contributed to the aesthetic beauty of the Epic of King Gesar.” 

But the awe of nature couldn’t stop Bon’s doom amid the political and religious strife. The establishment of Samye Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery built in Xizang, in 775 under the reign of staunch Buddhist supporter Trisong Detsen, who lived from 742 to 797, terminated Bon’s role as the mainstream religion in Xizang and marked the rise of Buddhism whose dominant religious influence has lasted till today on the plateau.

As Tibetan Buddhism began to impact the social, cultural, and artistic aspects of daily life in Xizang, it began to influence the Epic as well, Jampel told The Context.

Within the folklore of the Epic, the divine world and spirits are more a reflection of the primitive beliefs of ancient Tibetans than Buddhist Nirvana. However, with the growing political implications wielded by Buddhism in Xizang, the Epic could not stay unaffected, he explained.

In the Epic, the birth of Gesar is predestined by the Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, and safeguarded by other Buddhas with whom his role in saving the plateau from the destruction of demons was underpinned. Moreover, when the warrior-king attempted to liberate the innocents from the inferno as well as pray for the living beings on Earth, he was enlightened by Padma Sambhava, one of the founders of Tibetan Buddhism. Padma was an Esoteric Buddhist master assisting Trisong to establish the religion’s prestige in Xizang, according to both The Biography of King Gesar by Jampel and Wu Wei, and A Complete History of Xizang published by Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House. 

In addition to integrating different cultural and religious philosophies, the Epic also highlights the close relationship between the Tibetan and Han ethnic groups as Gesar’s most trustworthy half-blood brother Jatsa Shökya had a lineage of Han from his mother. The character designed dovetails into two significant marriages between the Tang Dynasty, lasting from 618 to 907, and Tubo -- one was between Songtsan and Princess Wencheng (625-680) and the other, Tride Tsugtsen (697-755) and Princess Jincheng (698-740). The marriages not only ceased conflicts and wars between the ethnic groups, but also introduced agricultural, architectural, and porcelain-making technologies from the central plains to the plateau.

Inherited from one generation to another, the Epic gradually spread from the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau to Mongolian Plateau, Qilian Mountains ranging from northeastern Qinghai to western Gansu provinces as well as the western parts of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. Through the centuries, King Gesar’s legends, with their beautiful expressions and vivid performances, have also extended to Nepal, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, and Russia.

Sithar said “The inclusiveness of the cultural elements in the Epic passed down orally from one generation to another has made it a living encyclopedia. With immense historic, cultural and literary values to be explored and preserved, it is qualified to be an intangible cultural heritage not only in China but also in the world.”

Sithar admitted that his academic background is probably the highest among the folk artists dedicated to performing of the Epic of King Gesar. By March 2024, he had completed more than 30 videos singing and reciting the legend, assisted in the filming of documentaries and movies about the Epic, and staged numerous performances including one for the China Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala in 2024.

He added that “Over the past two decades, I have been dedicated to the tape recording, writing and Tibetan-Chinese translating for the Epic’s protection mission. I have done these things to keep passing the torch from the late venerable Gesar artist Drakpa (1906-1986), a renowned inheritor of the cultural legacy, to my generation.” 

Over the past few centuries amid social turmoil and wars, the folklore of the Epic had long been overlooked nationwide. In such circumstances, the Gesar artists including Drakpa were either herdsmen or farmers struggling at the bottom of the society.

However, amid domestic negligence came Western attention. The first introduction of Gesar to Europe was found in a travelogue by German zoologist and botanist Peter Simon Pallas, who lived from 1741 to 1811. He happened to come across a Temple of Gesar in mai-mai tch’eng, today’s Kyakhtinsky District, Republic of Buryatia, Russia, in the 1770s.

Norbu Wangdan, a research fellow from the Institute of Ethnic Literature at CASS, wrote in an article entitled An Introduction to the Epic of King Gesar, published in the July 2020 edition of the journal Chinese Social Sciences Today, saying that “French scholars Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) and Rolf Alfred Stein (1911–1999) as well as American scholar Robin Korman (1947–2007) successively translated and introduced the Epic for their own nations, bringing this long-buried ancient culture to the modern world.” 

In China, ethnological historian Ren Naiqiang (1894-1989) was the first Chinese scholar to translate the Epic from Tibetan to Chinese. In 1944, his paper “A Brief Introduction to the Tibetan Three Kingdoms” was the first academic work to help Chinese better understand the Epic.

In the 1950s, a massive rescue project for the traditional cultures and arts of China’s ethnic groups was mapped out and the Epic of King Gesar was put on the list. From the 1950s to the ‘60s, well-organized and large-scale field and literature studies on the Epic were carried out. By 1966, more than 150 manuscripts and woodblock-printed brochures of the Epic were found. Under their relentless efforts, 74 volumes with 18 million words were translated from Tibetan to Chinese, according to an article entitled the Centennial Development of Studies on Gesar published at the Northwestern Journal of Ethnology in 2017 by Li Lianrong, a research fellow with the Institute of Ethnic Literature, CASS.

However, the solid momentum of the research was halted during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, and it was not resumed until the country’s reform and opening up.

In 1984, the rescue of the Epic was listed as part of China’s sixth and seventh five-year plan on philosophic and social sciences. Since then, the research institutes in seven provinces and autonomous regions, including the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Qinghai, and Sichuan, in addition to Xizang, have been established to find and protect the artists and manuscripts of the Epic. 

In Xizang, studies of Gesar were launched in a number of institutes including Tibet University and the Xizang Academy of Social Sciences (XASS). Since 1997, the rescue and compilation office of Gesar at the XASS has been renamed as the Research Center of Gesar at the Xizang Autonomous Region. 

Over the past three decades, the research center has made more than 5,000 tape recordings and published more than 100 volumes of the stories compiled from the existing manuscripts and the interviews with Gesar artists. It has also translated 43 volumes of the Epic from Tibetan to standard Chinese. Meanwhile, China’s National Ethnic Affairs Commission revealed in 2023 that the research institute at Tibet University also contributed 17 publications of the Epic from their rescue work.

Over the past few years, transcription work has been greatly accelerated using cutting-edge digital technology such as AI voice recognition.

Sithar pointed out, “Previously, not so many people were willing to transcribe the audio and video records, thinking the task too mechanical and time-consuming. But now the transcription is much quicker and easier than before.”

Still, in recent years, the art forms of the Epic started to diversify, expanding from singing and chanting to dancing, Thangka paintings and film-making. For instance, in 2023, the animated film King Gesar: Trials and Tribulations hit the big screen nationwide. Meanwhile, the cultural inheritors are being respected as professionals, and the younger generations can receive better education.

Sithar said, “Nowadays, many folk artists start to perform in urban tea-houses or on social media platforms like Douyin. Because of the social transformation, their performances are altered for the changing values in modern times. But no matter how they update their shows, the quintessence remains.” 

In the Epic of King Gesar, dreams play a very important role in delivering prophecies and revelations. So do they in choosing Gesar artists.

According to Sithar, his first sight of Gesar was in a dream at the age of nine.

He said, “When sleeping in the dormitory of my boarding school on that particular night, I dreamed I was taken by two generals from a grassland full of flowers and herds of cattle to a military camp where tents and battlements had been set up. That’s where King Gesar, in middle of the troops, asked me to pass down the legacy of the Epic throughout my lifetime after I had swallowed all books placed before me. The next morning, with no appetite to have anything for breakfast, I found myself able to chant the Epic without learning.” 

Sithar’s experience is not an exception among the over 100 folk artists of Gesar, found active in Xizang, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan, according to an article titled Research on Gesar Artists published by scholar Jolbu Dhondup in 2010 at the China Folklore Network, the online platform of China Folklore Society, a non-governmental and non-profit academic organization established in 1983.

Sithar said that “To decipher the incredible inheritance, genetic research from both home and abroad was conducted on the Gesar artists, but the mystery remains unsolved.” 

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Wu Jin, translator Wang Yuyan, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.