Epic effort to keep King Gesar legend alive
By singing ballads and storytelling, a group of folk artists in Nagchu city in the Tibet autonomous region are doing their best to ensure the many adventures of King Gesar will not be forgotten.
TheEpicofKingGesar is rooted in folklore and oral history passed down through generations of Tibetans. It has been called the Orient’s Homeric Epic and is said to be the longest story in the world, consisting of 120 volumes and 20 million words in more than 1 million verses.
The epic tells the 1,000-yearold legend of King Gesar, who was known to vanquish the evil and help the poor. The epic is still being performed by residents of Tibet and its neighboring regions.
King Gesar, which is presented in a performance that combines chanting, storytelling and ballad singing, is popular in Tibet and the Tibetan communities in Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces. Nagchu in the north of Tibet holds an important position in the King Gesar performing art, as it is home to the largest number of King Gesar performing artists in Tibet and the surrounding regions.
However, as the performing art is passed down through an oral tradition, how to preserve it in modern times has become a pressing challenge, according to local officials and researchers.
“In Nagchu, there are more than 90 certificated masters in the King Gesar performing art, the largest number in all the regions in Tibet,” said Li Hongwei, head of the cultural bureau of Nagchu city.
But he noted that many of the King Gesar artists are not well educated; many are illiterate.
“They cannot read but they are excellent artists for performing the King Gesar epic,” Li said.
The official explained that there are many different ways to inherit the performing art, not just learning it by reading.
“In addition to learning by reading, most of the artists acquired their skills through listening to oral teachings of elder masters.
“The most incredible thing is that many artists got the performing skill in a mysterious way beyond one’s imagination. They said they were taught by the gods or some supernatural beings,” Li said.
One such example is Phurbu.
The 42-year-old artist said he began his career as a King Gesar storyteller and ballad singer at the age of 14 after he had a strange dream.
“In the dream, I saw myself
as a horse-riding warrior, fighting in battles with a huge sword in my hand.
“Once wakened up, I could not help telling the stories to my parents. The stories are so long that it took me days and nights to tell.
“I just felt I was a reincarnation of somebody else. And the stories just happened in my previous lives hundreds of years ago.
“I was later told that those are the stories of King Gesar and my presentation with storytelling and ballad singing was just typical of the King Gesar art,” Phurbu said.
The King Gesar performing art was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2009. This demonstrates international recognition of the local art in Tibet and its neighboring regions.
Dawa Dundrup, curator of Nagchu Cultural Museum, has been engaged in the research of the King Gesar performing art for nearly three decades.
His job is to identify performing artists in the countryside of Nagchu.
“Once I receive a report that a King Gesar artist has been found, I will go to the site immediately to see his performance.
“If the performer is identified as a qualified King Gesar artist according to his performance, I would register his personal information like name and ID number and help to grant him a certificate,” Dawa Dundrup said.
With respect to the standards of recognizing a qualified performer, Li of the cultural bureau said: “The performance should be recognized by the audience; the total length of performance should be more than 20 hours; the ballad singing and storytelling should have a style unique to himself; and the content of the performance should be centered on the King Gesar epic.
“How to ensure the artists can be better paid is a major concern of the cultural authorities,” Li said.
He added that while the government offers a certain amount of subsidy, the artists are encouraged to perform in tourist destinations and at local tourist festivals.
To better preserve the art, cultural officials are cooperating with the autonomous region’s authorities to create a database for the art by shooting videos of the performances and are creating text documents.