Epic of King Gesar
Encyclopedia
Culture hero
A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group who changes the world through invention or discovery...
Gesar, the fearless lord of the legendary kingdom of Ling . It is recorded variously in poetry and prose, chantfable
Aucassin and Nicolette
Aucassin et Nicolette is an anonymous medieval French chantefable, or combination of prose and verse .-History:...
being the style of traditional performance, and is sung widely throughout Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
. Its classic version is to be found in central Tibet. Some 100 bards of this epic (sgrung: lit.'tale') are still active today in the Gesar belt of China, Tibetan
Tibetan people
The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is mostly in the People's Republic of China. They number 5.4 million and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan...
, Mongolian
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
, Buryat
Buryats
The Buryats or Buriyads , numbering approximately 436,000, are the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia and are mainly concentrated in their homeland, the Buryat Republic, a federal subject of Russia...
, and Tu
Tu people
The Monguor or Tu people , White Mongol/Chagan Mongol are one of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in the People's Republic of China. The "Tu" ethnic category was created in the 1950s....
singers maintain the oral tradition and the epic has attracted intense scholarly curiosity as one of the few oral epic traditions to survive as a performing art. Besides stories conserved by such Chinese minorities such as the Bai, Naxi, the Pumi, Lisu, and the Yugur peoples, versions of the epic are also recorded among the Burushaski-speaking Burusho of Hunza
Hunza (princely state)
Hunza was a princely state in the northernmost part of the Northern Areas of Pakistan until 1974. The state was also known as Kanjut. The state bordered the Gilgit Agency to the south, the former princely state of Nagar to the east, China, to the north and Afghanistan to the northwest. The state...
and Gilgit
Gilgit
Gilgit is a city in northern PakistanGilgit may refer to other terms related with the area of the city:* Gilgit River* Gilgit Valley* Gilgit District* Gilgit Agency * Gilgit Airport...
, the Kalmyk
Kalmyk people
Kalmyk people is the name given to the Oirats, western Mongols in Russia, whose descendants migrated from Dzhungaria in 1607. Today they form a majority in the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Kalmykia is Europe's only Buddhist government...
and Ladakh
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
i peoples, in Baltistan
Baltistan
Baltistan , also known as بلتیول བལིུལ་ in the Balti language, is a region in northern Pakistan which forms Gilgit-Baltistan, bordering the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. In addition, a part of Baltistan also falls into Jammu and Kashmir of India. It is situated in the Karakoram mountains...
, in Sikkim
Sikkim
Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
, Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, and among various Tibeto-Burmese
Tibeto-Burman languages
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Chinese members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken thoughout the highlands of southeast Asia, as well as lowland areas in Burma ....
, Turkish, and Tunghus
Tungusic peoples
Tungusic peoples are the peoples who speak Tungusic languages. The word originated in Tunguska, an ill-defined region of Siberia.-Peoples:Tungusic peoples are:*Evenks*Evens*Jurchens *Manchu*Negidals...
tribes. The first printed version was a Mongolian text published in Beijing in 1716.
The epic is composed of a very large body of versions, each with many variants, and is reputed by some to be the longest in the world. Although there is no one definitive text, the Chinese compilation so far of just its Tibetan versions has filled some 120 volumes, more than one million verses, divided into 29 'chapters'. Western calculations speak of more than 50 different books edited so far in China, India and Tibet.
A Tibetan scholar has written:-
Like the outstanding Greek epics, Indian epics and KalevalaKalevalaThe Kalevala is a 19th century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology.It is regarded as the national epic of Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature...
, King Gesar is a brilliant pearl in the world's cultural treasure and is an important contribution made by our country to human civilization.'
Etymology
It has been proposed on the basis of phonetic similarities that the name Gesar reflects the Roman title CaesarCaesar (title)
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
, and that the intermediary for the transmission of this imperial title from Rome to Tibet may have been a Turkish language, since kaiser (emperor) entered Turkish through contact with Byzantium
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, where Caesar (Καῖσαρ) was an imperial title. Some think the medium for this transmission may have been via Mongolian Kesar. The Mongols were allied with the Byzantines
Byzantine-Mongol alliance
A Byzantine–Mongol alliance occurred during the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century between the Byzantine Empire and the Mongol Empire. Byzantium actually tried to maintain friendly relations with both the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate realms, who were often at war with each other...
, whose emperor still used the title. Numismatic evidence and some accounts speak of a Bactria
Bactria
Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...
n ruler Phrom-kesar, specifically in the Turkish dynasty in Gandhāra
Gandhara
Gandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
, which was ruled by a Turkish Phrom-kesar ('Caesar of Rome'), who was father-in-law of the king of Khotan
Khotan
Hotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....
, around the middle of the 8th.century CE. In early Bön sources, Phrom-kesar is always a place name, and never refers, as it does later, to a ruler. In some Tibetan versions of the epic, a king named Phrom Ge-sar or Khrom Ge-sar figures as one of the kings of the four directions
Four Heavenly Kings
In the Buddhist faith, the Four Heavenly Kings are four gods, each of whom watches over one cardinal direction of the world.The Kings are collectively named as follows:...
- the name is attested in the 10th.century CE- and this Phrom/Khrom preserves an Iranian form (*frōm-hrōm) for 'Rūm/Rome.' This eastern Iranian word lies behind the Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
word for (Eastern) Rome
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
(拂菻:Fúlǐn), namely Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
(phrōm-from<*phywət-lyəm>).
A. H. Francke
August Hermann Francke (Tibetologist)
August Hermann Francke was a German Tibetologist.His grandfather was Christian Friedrich Francke, a descendant of the eighteenth-century theologian August Hermann Francke , after whom August was named. He married Anna Theodora Weize whom he met in Kleinwelka, Saxony...
thought the Tibetan name Gesar derived from Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
. S.K. Chatterji
Suniti Kumar Chatterji
Suniti Kumar Chatterji was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was born on 26 November 1890 at Shibpur in Howrah...
, introducing his work, noted that the Ladakh variant of Kesar, Kyesar, in Classical Tibetan
Classical Tibetan
Classical Tibetan refers to the language of any text written in Tibetan after the Old Tibetan period and before the modern period, but in particular refers to the language of early canonical texts translated from other languages, especially Sanskrit...
Skye-gsar meant 'reborn/newly born', and that Gesar/Kesar in Tibetan, as in Sanskrit signify the 'anther
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...
or pistil of a flower', corresponding to Sankrit kēsara, whose root 'kēsa' (hair) is Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
.
Gesar and the Kingdom of Ling
In Tibet, that Gesar was an historical figure is rarely questioned. Some scholars there argued he was born in 1027, on the basis of a note in a 19th. century chronicle, the Mdo smad chos vbyung by Brag dgon pa dkon mchog bstan pa rab. Certain core episodes seem to reflect events recorded at the dawn of Tibetan history: the marriage to a Chinese princess is reminiscent of legends concerning Srong-btsan sGam-po's alliance marriage with WénchéngPrincess Wencheng
Princess Wencheng was a niece of the powerful Emperor Taizong of China's Tang Dynasty, who left China in 640, according to records, arriving the next year in Tibet to marry the thirty-seven year old Songtsän Gampo the thirty-third king of the Yarlung Dynasty of Tibet, in a marriage of...
in 641, for example. Legends variously place him in Gulok
Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture of Qinghai province in China. The prefecture has an area of 76,312 km² and its capital is Maqên County.-Geography:...
, between Dotō and Domé, or in Markham
Markam County
Markham County, is a county of the Chamdo Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region.- Transportation :* China National Highway 214* China National Highway 318...
, Kongpo
Kongpo
Kongpo is a Tibetan Autonomous Region in the Nyingchi Prefecture. It is situated on the river Yarlung Zangbo in the area of the Nyang River , a northern tributary river of the Yarlung Zangbo....
, Tanak, Öyuk or the village of Panam on the Nyangchu river. Given that the mythological and allegorical elements of the story defy place and time, the historicity of figures in the cycle is indeterminate. Though the epic was sung all over Tibetan-speaking regions, with Kham
Kham
Kham , is a historical region covering a land area largely divided between present-day Tibetan Autonomous Region and Sichuan province, with smaller portions located within Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces of China. During the Republic of China's rule over mainland China , most of the region was...
and Amdo
Amdo
Amdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the other two being Ü-Tsang and Kham; it is also the birth place of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu River to the Drichu river . While culturally and ethnically a Tibetan area, Amdo has been administered by a...
long regarded as the centres for its diffusion, traditions do connect Gesar with the former Kingdom of Ling . In Tibetan, gling means, literally, an 'island', but can have, as in Sanskrit dvīpa
Dvipa
In Indian mythology, dvīpa is the term for the major divisions of the terrestrial sphere, sometimes translated as "continents"....
), the secondary meaning of 'continent'. Ling was a petty kingdom located in the eastern part
Kham
Kham , is a historical region covering a land area largely divided between present-day Tibetan Autonomous Region and Sichuan province, with smaller portions located within Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces of China. During the Republic of China's rule over mainland China , most of the region was...
of the Tibetan plateau (Tibetan: mdo khams), between the 'Bri (Yangtze) and rDza (Yalong
Yalong River
The Nyag Qu or Yalong River, also called Ya-lung River is an 822 mile long river in the Sichuan province of southern China. It flows into the Yangtze River along the border with Yunnan. It is a tributary of the Yangtze River...
) rivers. An historical kingdom of Lingtsang (Tibetan: gLing-tshang) existed until the 20th century.
Growth of the Epic
The success of the Turk Fromo Kesaro in overwhelming an intrusive Arab army, sometime between 739-745, may have formed the historic core behind the Gesar epic in Tibet. In the records of the earliest rulers of Ladakh, Baltistan and Gilgit, whose countries were later overrun by incursive Tibetans, royal ancestry is connected to the Bactrian Gesar.In its distinctive Tibetan form, the epic appears to date from the time of the second transmission of Buddhism to Tibet (marked by the formation of the Kadampa
Kadampa
The Kadampa tradition was a Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist school. Dromtönpa, a Tibetan lay master and the foremost disciple of the great Indian Buddhist Master Atisha , founded it and passed three lineages to his disciples. The Kadampa were quite famous and respected for their proper and earnest...
, Kagyu
Kagyu
The Kagyu, Kagyupa, or Kagyud school, also known as the "Oral Lineage" or Whispered Transmission school, is today regarded as one of six main schools of Himalayan or Tibetan Buddhism, the other five being the Nyingma, Sakya, Jonang, Bon and Gelug...
and Sakya
Sakya
The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...
schools), although the story includes early elements taken from Indian
History of India
The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...
tantricism
Vajrayana
Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...
. The oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
of this epic is most prominent in the two remote areas associated with the ancient Bönpo (Ladakh
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
and Zanskar
Zanskar
Zanskar is a subdistrict or tehsil of the Kargil district, which lies in the eastern half of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The administrative centre is Padum...
in the far west of Tibet, and Kham
Kham
Kham , is a historical region covering a land area largely divided between present-day Tibetan Autonomous Region and Sichuan province, with smaller portions located within Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces of China. During the Republic of China's rule over mainland China , most of the region was...
and Amdo
Amdo
Amdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the other two being Ü-Tsang and Kham; it is also the birth place of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu River to the Drichu river . While culturally and ethnically a Tibetan area, Amdo has been administered by a...
regions of eastern Tibet), strongly suggesting that the story has Bön roots. However, the oral versions known to us today are not, according to R. A. Stein, earlier than the written versions, but rather depend on them.
As an oral tradition, a large number of variants have always existed, and no canonical text can be written. However, the epic narrative was certainly in something similar to its present form by the 15th century at the latest as shown by the mentions in the rLangs-kyi Po-ti bSe-ru by Byang chub rgyal mtshan. Despite the age of the tradition, the oldest extant text of the epic is actually the Mongolian woodblock print commissioned by the Qing Emperor Kangxi in 1716. None of the Tibetan texts that have come down to us are earlier than the 18th century, although they are likely based on older texts that have not survived. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a woodblock edition
Woodblock printing
Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper....
of the story was compiled by a scholar-monk from Ling-tsang, a small kingdom north-east of sDe-dge, with inspiration from the prolific Tibetan philosopher Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso.
The wide variety of cultures in which the Gesar epic is encountered means that the name for the hero varies.In Tibetan legends Gesar is variously called Gesar of Ling, Ling Gesar, Gesar Norbu Dradul. Among the Buryat he is known as Abai Gesar Khubun. The Khalkha oral version calls him Altan Bogdo khan. An Altai version
Altaic languages
Altaic is a proposed language family that includes the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, and Japonic language families and the Korean language isolate. These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
calls him Sädängkäi Käsär and Sartaktai Käsär,
Story and narrative motifs
The epic has a vast number of variants in plot and motifs, but while there is little point in looking for a consistent picture, the core of the story, similar to that of many legendary cycles, has been summed up as follows:King Ge-sar has a miraculous birth, a despised and neglected childhood, and then becomes ruler and wins his (first) wife ’Brug-mo through a series of marvellous feats. In subsequent episodes he defends his people against various external aggressors, human and superhuman. Instead of dying a normal death he departs into a hidden realm from which he may return at some time in the future to save his people from their enemies.
For Samuels, the Gesar epic lies towards the shamanic
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
pole in the continuum of Tibetan culture and religion, which he sees as evincing a constant tension between 'clerical' and 'shamanic' Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, the latter grounded in its earlier Bön substrate. The received versions of the Ge-sar cycle are thickly overlaid with Buddhist ideas and motifs, and detecting the original 'heroic' form is difficult. Historical analysis to sift out an ancient core narrative winnows the archaic folkloric leitmotifs from features that show distinct and historically identifiable Buddhist influences. Samuel, comparing three Gesar traditions, Mongolian, Eastern Tibetan and Ladakhi, that developed relatively autonomously, postulates the following core narrative shared by all three:
- (1) The Lha gling episode.
- (2) The ′Khrungs gling episode.
- (3) The rTa rgyugs episode.
- (4) The bDud 'dul episode.
- (5) The Hor gling episode.
- (6) The China journey episode.
to which one might add
- (7) The Srid pa'i le'u cosmogenic prelude.
Tibetan versions
Tibetan versions differ very greatly in details. Often Buddhist motifs are conspicuous, with episodes on the creation of the world and Tibet's cosmic origins. In other variants the BuddhaBuddha
In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
is never mentioned, or a certain secular irony is voiced against the national religion. According to Samten Karmay
Samten Karmay
Samten Gyeltsen Karmay is a writer and researcher in the field of Tibetan Studies. His work is focused on the study of Tibetan myths, beliefs, Bon religion and religious history.-Life and work:...
, Gesar arose as the hero of a society still thinly permeated by Buddhism, and the earlier myths associate him with pre-Buddhist beliefs like the mountain cult. While in most episodes, Gesar fights against the enemies of dharma, an old warrior ethos, where physical power, courage, a combative spirit and things like cunning and deceit, prevail.
- Cosmic prelude and Tibet's early history. One motif explains how the world collapsed into anarchy: numerous demon kings (Tib.:bdud) had avoided subjection. As a result, hordes of cannibalistic demons and goblins, led by malignant and greedy rulers of many kingdoms, wreak havoc. Tibet's conversion from barbarity to BuddhismBuddhismBuddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
under the three great Dharma kingsDharma RajaDharma Raja Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma was the Maharajah of Travancore from 1758 until his death in 1798. He succeeded his uncle Marthanda Varma, who is credited with the title of "maker of modern Travancore"...
(Sanskrit:Dharma rāja/Tibetan: chos rgyal) often feature. Episodes relate how PadmasambhāvaPadmasambhavaPadmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
(Tib.: pad-ma 'byung gnas) subdued Tibet's violent native spirits.
- His miraculous or mundane birth. In one account, he was fatherless, like PadmasambhāvaPadmasambhavaPadmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
, who assists his celestial creation by creating a nāgīNagaNaga or NAGA may refer to:* Nāga, a group of serpent deities in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.-People:* Nayan / Nayar/Nair people of Kerala Society* Naga people, a diverse ethnic identity in Northeast India...
who then serves the king of Ling, and is impregnated by drinking a magic potion, and is born from his mother's head, like AthenaAthenaIn Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
. Or, he is conceived by his mother drinking water impressed with his image. Alternatively, he is born from the union of a father who is simultaneously skygod and holy mountain, and of a mother who is a goddess of the watery underworld, or he is born, Chori, in the lineage of Ling in the Dza Valley, to the king Singlen Gyalpo and his spouse Lhakar Drönma of Gog.
- Relatives. He has a half-brother, and two uncles: one is the "old hawk", (Tib.:sPyi dPon rong tsha), the wise elder of Ling,who supports the child; the other, the cowardly and greedy Khro-thung, sees the child as a threat and tries to do him ill. Khro-thung fulfils a comic role in the epic, but his role as provocateur is absolutely central.
- His early years. Gesar's mission as a divine emissary is to vanquish powerful demons on earth. Until his adolescence he is depicted as black, ugly, nasty, snotty and troublesome. His paternal uncle, or the king's brother Todong, banishes both son and mother to the Ma (Tib.:rMa) plateau, where he grows up living a feral life, with the child clothed in animal skins and wearing a hat with antelope horns. He comes first in a horserace whose trophy consists of the kingship of Ling. His victory marks his coming of ageRite of passageA rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
, as consecrated king, he proclaims himself 'the Great Lion, Wish.-fulfilling Jewel, Subduer of Foes' (Tib.: Sengchen Morbu Dradul). He also assumes the name of Gesar. Mounted on his miraculous steed Kyang Go Karkar, he subsequently wages military campaigns, together with 30 companions, against the frontier countries that represent evil.
- HorseraceRite of passageA rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
and kingship. When he is 12, a horse race is held to determine who will become the king of Ling and who will marry the beautiful daughter, 'Brug-mo, of a neighbouring chieftain. Returning to Ling, Chori wins the race, marries 'Brug-mo, and ascends the golden throne. He thenceforth assumes the title 'Gesar'.
- The kidnapping of 'Brug-mo. His first campaign as king is against Klu-btsan, the man-eating demon of the north. While away, his wife is kidnapped by Gur-dkar (literally: "white tent"), the King of Hor. On his return, Gesar undertakes a second compaign, and uses magic to infiltrate the king of Hor's palace, kills him and retrieves his wife.
- two further campaigns. Gesar wages war against King Sa-dam of 'Jang (sometimes located in YunnanYunnanYunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
), and king Shing khri of Mon (sometimes located in the southern Himalayan region).
- The 18 fortresses (rdzong chen bco brgyad). Gesar sets out to conquer the 18 great forts (Tib.: rdzong). They are listed differently according to singers and texts, but these battles nearly always include Tajik (Tib.: Stag-gzig) and Khache MuslimTibetan MuslimsThe Tibetan Muslims, also known as the Kachee , form a small minority in Tibet. Despite being Muslim, they are classified as Tibetans, unlike the Hui Muslims, who are also known as the Kyangsha or Gya Kachee...
adversaries.
- LhasaLhasaLhasa is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau, after Xining. At an altitude of , Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world...
. Some versions say that, aged 39 he made a retreat on the 'Red Hill' (Marpori), where the later Potala PalacePotala PalaceThe Potala Palace is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was named after Mount Potala, the abode of Chenresig or Avalokitesvara...
was built.
- Old age. When Gesar reaches his eighties, he briefly descends to Hell as a last episode before he leaves the land of men and ascends once more to his celestial paradise.
Mongolian version (1716) version
- Opens with a heavenly prologue, Ge-ser's birth, youth, marriage to Rogmo and his obtaining the kingship of Ling.
- Geser defeats a black striped tiger.
- Geser's voyage to China where he marries a Chinese princess
- Geser's defeat of the demon king, with the helpf of the latter's wife.
- Geser's war against the three kings of Sharaigol (Hor)
- Geser's defeat of a demon who assumed the guise of a lama.
- Geser's descent to hell to rescue his mother.
Buryat version
Buryat versions of the epic focus mainly on Gesar's battles with various demons, rather than on military campaigns They also contain a detailed and drastically different prologue to Gesar's exploits. According to these versions, the great TengriTengri
Tengri or Tengger Tengri or Tengger Tengri or Tengger (Old Turkic: ; Mongolian: Тэнгэр, Tenger; Chinese: 腾格里, Mandarin: Ténggélǐ, Hungarian: Tengri, Turkish: Tanrı, Bulgarian: Tangra (Тангра) is a sky god, formerly the chief deity of the early Turkic peoples, including the Xiongnu, Huns, Bulgars,...
Khormusta (Turmas, Khorbustu, Hormust) khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
of the celestial tribes of the West waged war with Atai Ulan, khan of the malicious gods of the east. After his victory, Khormusta dismemebers Atai Ulan to prevent his resurrection and throws his body parts to Earth, where they become demons and monsters. The act almost causes the extinction of humanity, the middle son of Khormusta (Bukhe Belligte or Uile Butelegcji) was sent from the realm of heaven to undo the damage.
The Buryat version contains 9 branches or song episodes ( uliger), each devoted to tell how Gesar defeats an enemy.
- First branch:Gesar's youth. In this branch, Gesar, called Nyurgai (Stinker) and while still in his infancy, defeats three giant rats, human-sized mosquitos and steel ravens (compare HeraclesHeraclesHeracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
and Cu Chulain) and marries two princess, whereupon he assumes his true name. - Second branch: He marries princess Alma Mergen, daughter of a water deity. He then hunts demonic beasts, born from Atai Ulan's drops of blood. These include a mountain-sized dragon, the keeper of a silver mountain.
- Third branch: He undertakes combat with the great Lord of the TaigaTaigaTaiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
, the giant tiger Orgoli, which was born from Atai Ulan's right hand. - Fourth branch: He kills a great beast, Arkhan the Sun-Eater, who was born from Atai Ulan's severed head.
- Fifth branch: He wars against Gal Dulme, the personification of volcanic activity, who was born from Atai Ulan's corpse. Because of his youth Gesar is unable to defeat Gal Dulme by himself, and the deed is performed with assistance from his elder brother.
- Sixth branch: He wars against Abarga Sasen, a 15-headed demon born from Atai Ulan's right leg.
- Seventh branch: He wars against Shiram Minata, a Demon from the 'Country betwixt Life and Death', who was born from Atai Ulan's left leg.
- Eighth branch: He wages war against three Shirai-Gol khans. This branch seems to be closely related to the Tibetan song about Gesar and three kings of kingdom of Hor.
- Ninth branch: He campaigns against Lobsogoi, a tricksterTricksterIn mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. It is suggested by Hansen that the term "Trickster" was probably first used in this...
demon, who was born from Atai Ulan's backside.
There are a number of stories not connected with the foregoing nine branches described above for example, a story in which Gesar shames Gume-Khan of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, or one in which he exterminates the Four Recklings of Evil, demonic beings whose nature is not quite clear.
Distinctive features of these versions of the Gesar epic has led some scholars to the view that the Buryat and Mongolian versions are not directly dependent on a Tibetan original. Setsenmunkh has argued, and the idea was shared by C. Damdinsuren and B. Vladimirtsev, that the written Mongolian versions stem from one source which has not survived.
Lower Ladakhi version
This version contains the following seven episodes:- The ancestor Dong-gsum Mi-la sngon-mo, born miraculously, kills a nine-headed ogre, from whose body the land of gLing is born. He fathers eighteen heroes who arrive in gLing.
- dBang-po rgya-bzhinIndra' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...
, choses his youngest son, Don-grub to rule gLing. Dying, he is reborn as a bird, and then as Gog-bzang lha-mo, and is called Kesar/Kyesar. - Kesar married Brug-gu-ma ('a fragment of grain') and becomes king of gLing.
- Kesar journeys to China where he marries the emperor's daughter, 'g.Yu'i dKon-mchog-ma.
- Kesar defeats the giants of the north, assisted by the giant's wife Dze-mo.
- While he is away, the King of Hor kidnaps his wife 'Brug-gu-ma.
- On his return, Kesar vanquishes the King of Hor, and brings his wife back to gLing.
Similarities with motifs in Turkic heroic poetry
Chadwick and Zhirmunsky consider that the main outlines of the cycle as we have it in Mongolia, Tibet and Ladakh show an outline that conforms to the pattern of heroic poetryEpic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
among the Turkic peoples
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
. (a) Like the Kirghiz hero Bolot, Gesar, as part of an initiation
Rite of passage
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
descends as a boy into the underworld. (b) The gateway to the underworld is through a rocky hole or cave on a mountain summit. (c) He is guided through the otherworld by a female tutelary spirit (Manene/grandmother) who rides an animal, like the Turkish shamaness kara Chach. (d) Like kara Chach, Gesar's tutelary spirit helps him against a host of monstrous foes in the underworld. (e) Like Bolot, Gesar returns in triumph to the world, bearing the food of immortality and the water of life.(f) Like the Altai shamans, Gesar is borne heavenward on the back of a bird to obtain herbs to heal his people. They conclude that the stories of the Gesar cycle were well known in eastern Turkestan
East Turkestan
East Turkestan is a controversial political term with multiple meanings depending on context and usage...
before the fall of the Uyghur empire.
The Bhutan versions
The versions of the Gesar epic collected in Bhutan, in publication since 1979, are projected to run into some 31 volumes.The Second King of Bhutan retained a Gesar singer as a full-time entertainer for the royal court, and recitals of the Epic of Gesar were said to be the king's favorite form of edification.
Oral transmission and performance
According to Lǐ Liánróng,By narrowing the period of its creation to the tenth and eleventh centuries, the dynamic of literary composition is erroneously attributed to an oral epic. Furthermore, the epic reflects Tibetan society during the sixth to ninth centuries rather than the tenth century. Thus a satisfactory conclusion about the epic’s origins cannot be drawn based on the lifespans of historical heroic figures.... Jiangbian pointed out that the foundation for the origin of epic is ethnic folk culture. He conjectured that before epics came into being, the Tibetan people “already had a corpus of stories that described the formation of the heavens and the earth, their ethnic origin, and ethnic heroes; these stories provided a foundation for creating the character Gesar, also known as Sgrung in early history. After further polishing by the oral poets, especially the ballad singers, Gesar became a great epic” (1986:51).
Many performers recite episodes from memory or books, while others chant the legendary tales in a state of trance
Trance
Trance denotes a variety of processes, ecstasy, techniques, modalities and states of mind, awareness and consciousness. Trance states may occur involuntarily and unbidden.The term trance may be associated with meditation, magic, flow, and prayer...
. This last mode bears strong similarities with shamanic practitioners like the dpa'bo mediums
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
and mig mthong diviners
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...
. As an heroic song composed or recited by oral bards, the epic of Gesar has been, for centuries, improvised on, and there is therefore no canonical or monumental version, as one finds in, for example, Greek epic. A given Gesar singer would know only his local version, which nonetheless would take weeks to recite. It has been responsive to regional culture and folklore, local conflicts, religious trends, and even political changes on the world stage. For example, in modern times, when news of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
trickled into Tibet, additional episodes on how 'Gesar Conquers the Kingdom of Phyigling 'Jar' were composed by Khams-sprul Rinpoche VIII (1929–1980) in which Gesar appears, according to some interpretations, to travel to Germany to vanquish the demon-king, perhaps alluding to Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
.
Religious dimension
Tibetan history has often swung between centralized and stateless poles, and the epic of Gesar reflects the tensions between central authority, as embodied in religious orthodoxy, and the wild, nomadic forces of the autarkicAutarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
periphery. Versions that adopt Gesar as a lama show him as a tamer of the wild, though, in so far as his epic retains his old lineaments as a maverick master of shamanic powers, he represents the stateless, anarchic dimension of Tibet's margins, and it is not coincidental that the epic flourished on the outlying regions of Kham and Amdo. His wars are campaigns of defence against hostile powers intent on subduing the kingdom of gLing, which are often construed as anti-Buddhist. But his vanquishing of the dzongs or fortresses preserves an ambiguity, since these were potential outposts of the state.
Until recently, the tale was forbidden reading in many Tibetan monasteries. In some monasteries, however, rituals invoking Gesar as a major spiritual force are performed. Given the central role the epic played over the centuries in Tibetan folk culture, Tibetan Buddhism has incorporated elements from it and interpreted them in religious terms. The Gelugpa school disapproved of the epic, while Kagyupa and Nyingmapa lamas generally favoured it, seeing it as an expression of the activity of Guru Rinpoche and as a vehicle for Buddhist teachings, especially of the Dzogch'en
Dzogchen
According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by...
school. Consequentially, the question of whether babdrung (visionary Gesar bards) should be regarded as ch'öpa (Dharma people) will be answered differently by those who favor and those who oppose the epic. The babdrung themselves, however, generally emphasize the connection of the epic with ch'ö (Dharma) and see themselves as a kind of ch'öpa or Dharma practitioner.
Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche
Orgyen Tobgyal
Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche, also called Tulku Ugyen Topgyal, is a Tibetan Buddhist lama who was born in Kham in Eastern Tibet in 1951, living in exile in india.- Life :...
recently explained that in the Nyingmapa perspective:
'the real nature of the manifestation we know as Ling Gesar is actually that of Guru Rinpoche himself appearing in the form of a drala.'
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was a Buddhist meditation master and holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, the eleventh Trungpa tülku, a tertön, supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and originator of a radical re-presentation of Shambhala vision.Recognized...
, who represented both the Kagyupa and Nyingmapa lineages, and leader of the modern Eclectic School
Eclectic school
The Eclectic school of medicine was an ancient school of medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. They were so-called because they selected from each sect the opinions which seemed to them most probable. They seemed to have been a branch of the Methodic school. They were founded, it would seem by...
(Ris-med) of Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
in the diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
, inspired by the Greek philosophers of the polis
Polis
Polis , plural poleis , literally means city in Greek. It could also mean citizenship and body of citizens. In modern historiography "polis" is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, so polis is often translated as "city-state."The...
, used the Gesar epic detailed tales about an idealized nomadic government formed by the Mukpo clan, which constructed a nomadic confederation of imperial reach, to develop a model of a Tibetan polity.
History of Gesar studies
The first printed edition of the Gesar epic was published in Beijing in 1716 in a Mongolian version. It was this text which formed the basis for the first Western-language translation, a Russian version published by the Moravian missionary Isaak Jakob Schmidt in 1836. A German translation followed in 1839. Another Moravian missionary, August Hermann FranckeAugust Hermann Francke (Tibetologist)
August Hermann Francke was a German Tibetologist.His grandfather was Christian Friedrich Francke, a descendant of the eighteenth-century theologian August Hermann Francke , after whom August was named. He married Anna Theodora Weize whom he met in Kleinwelka, Saxony...
, collected and translated a version from Lower Ladakh between 1905 and 1909. In 1942 George Roerich made a comprehensive survey of the literature of Gesar (Roerich 1942;277-315)
In the 20th century, other Mongolian Geser texts were edited by scientists like Nicholas Poppe and Walther Heissig
Walther Heissig
Walther Heissig was an Austrian Mongolist. He was born in Vienna. He studied prehistory, ethnology, historical geography, sinology and Mongolian in Berlin and Vienna, and got his doctoral degree in 1941 in Vienna. Afterwards he traveled to China, worked at the Fu-jen University in Beijing and...
.
The first three volumes of the version known as the Lingtsang-Dege woodblock, which was composed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was published with a very faithful though incomplete French translation by Rolf Stein
Rolf Stein
Rolf Alfred Stein was a noted 20th century Sinologist and Tibetologist. He contributed in particular to the study of the Epic of King Gesar, on which he wrote two books, and the use of Chinese sources in Tibetan history...
in 1956. Stein followed this publication with his 600-page magnum opus on the Tibetan Epic entitled Recherches sur l'Epopee et le Barde au Tibet. This remains the most in-depth study of the Tibetan Gesar tradition.
Another version has been translated into German by Matthias Hermanns
Matthias Hermanns
P. Matthias Hermanns was a missionary of the SVD and a German Tibetologist..- Biography :Father Matthias Hermanns was a member of the Society of the Divine Word , a German-Dutch Catholic congregation which managed to send some 90 missionaries into the Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces of...
(1965). This translation is based on manuscripts collected by Hermanns in Amdo
Amdo
Amdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the other two being Ü-Tsang and Kham; it is also the birth place of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu River to the Drichu river . While culturally and ethnically a Tibetan area, Amdo has been administered by a...
. This book also contains extensive study by Hermanns explaining the epic as the product of the Heroic Age of the nomads of North-eastern Tibet and their interactions with the many other peoples of the Inner Asian steppe. Hermanns believed the epic to pre-date Buddhism in Tibet, and saw in it an expression of the ancient Tibetan archetype of the "heaven-sent king", as found also in the myths of the founders of the Yarlung Dynasty, who founded the Tibetan Empire (7th-9th centuries CE).
The most accessible rendering of Gesar in English is by Alexandra David-Néel
Alexandra David-Néel
Alexandra David-Néel born Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David was a Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist and writer, most known for her visit to Lhasa, Tibet, in 1924, when it was forbidden to foreigners...
in her "Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling", published in French in 1933.