Slavica Publishers
Enhong Yang - Tibetan Oral Epic - Oral Tradition 18:1 Oral Tradition 18.1 (2003) 104-105

Tibetan Oral Epic

Yang Enhong

In the field of Tibetan oral epic studies there is concern over that fact that the tradition of King Gesar, which has been preserved among illiterate artists and audiences and handed down orally and aurally, has waned and could disappear from modern society. Like the Greek and Indian epics before it, King Gesar appears to be losing its status as a living oral tradition while being retained in written form. Oral tradition differs strongly from literary and artistic creation, serving as a dynamic repository for the wisdom belonging to an entire culture.

Because performers of King Gesar are gradually disappearing one by one, there is a pressing need for research among these singers. In Tibetan epic studies the types of areas being probed are as follows:

  1. The best Tibetan Gesar performers, called divine singers, could recall the whole story, a feat requiring hundreds, even thousands, of hours. Because only a few singers are able to accomplish this feat, we would like to investigate this phenomenon from the perspectives of sociology, anthropology, oral-formulaic theory, and so on.
  2. How could these singers learn such long versions of the story? Where and how did they acquire the whole story?
  3. When the same episode is performed by a single artist, how does it change with respect to time, place, and various audiences?



Institute of Ethnic Literature
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Yang Enhong currently serves as Senior Researcher and Director of the Division of Tibetan Literature at the Institute of Ethnic Literature, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. She has closely studied performances by singers of the epic Gesar and published many articles in this field. She is the author of Investigations and Research into Singers of the Epic Gesar (1995) and Gesar: A Heroic Epic from Chinese Ethnic Minority Traditions (1990).

© by Enhong Yang.

References

Grags pa 1997
Grags pa. Conquering the Northern King Klu btsan (byang klu btsan rgyal po vdul ba). Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House. [End Page 104]

Yang 1995a
Yang Enhong. The Chinese Minority People's Epic Gesar (Zhong Guo Shao Shu Min Zu Ying Xiong Shi Shi Ge Sa Er). Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Press (Zhe Jiang Jiao Yu Chu Ban She).

Yang 1995b
Yang Enhong. A Study of Artists Performing Folk Poetic Hero Gesar (Min Jian Shi Shen: Ge Sa Er Yi Ren Yan Jiu). Beijing: Tibetology Publishing House (Zhong Guo Zang Xue Chu Ban She).

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