The Legendary Epic of King Gesar

Just as the Greeks had the Iliad and the medieval Europeans had the legends of King Arthur, Tibetans had the Epic of King Gesar. The Epic of King Gesar is rooted from folklore and oral history passed down from Tibetan generations and its written origins can be traced back to 1716 when it was ordered to be translated from Tibetan by the Qing Emperor. The epic has been called the Orient’s Homeric Epic and is considered to be the longest literary work in the world. Amassing over 120 volumes and 20 million words in more than 1 million verses.

“The epic relates the heroic achievements of Gesar, the superhuman warrior ruler of the Kingdom of Ling, who waged war with the nearby Kingdom of Hor. Distinctly Tibetan in style, the epic appears to date from time of the second transmission of Buddhism to Tibet. Gesar is said to have lived without fear of his rather formidable enemies, subdued monsters, helped the poor and controlled the strong, and brought benefits to the common people”.

To Tibetans, and much of Central Asia, King Gesar is a hero. “He is said to have been born in the 11th century. During his childhood he spent his time as a shepherd and later married “Zhumao” and with her brother built an army of tens of thousands under 30 generals. After defeating their enemies, they established the State of Ling with Ozhu as its base. The Chinese acknowledge that Gesar fought in present-day Golog, Yushuo, Garze, Xinlong, Daofu, Seda, Luohuo, Aba and Qamdo. His generals were granted land in Baiyu, Dengke, Shiqu, Golog, Yushu and Qamdo”.

In old age, Gesar of Ling decided to return home from Chamdo where he had been residing. Legend says that at Dengke, his horse was startled by a dog, and the king was thrown and died.

The Kingdom of Ling:
“The mythological and allegorical elements of the story defy place and time, and several places lay claim to being the former Kingdom of Ling, however both Tibetan and Chinese experts have generally agreed that the strongest claim as the birthplace of King Gesar is Axu town in the prairie of Dege County located in the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of southwest Sichuan Province. Gesar’s “soul mountain”, in turn, was the famous snow peak of Golog, Amnye Machen, in modern Qinghai Province.”
“The legendary locale of his early activity is written Trhom, Phrom or Khrom which does indeed sound like Rome. However, in Asia the name Rum was used to refer to the eastern part of the Roman Empire, ie. Byzantium or Anatolia. Ling is an abbreviation of dzam-ling ( Skt. Jambudvipa) which is the name for our world.

Tibetan tradition suggests that the upper reaches of the Yarlung River in the county of Dege in Kartse, East Tibet (now western Chinese province of Sichuan) was the birthplace of Gesar. De-ge is Tibetan for “benevolent area.” That region is full of traces linking it to King Gesar”.

Varying narratives:

“The Gesar legends vary according to the cultural tradition of the devotee. In the Bon tradition, Gesar is sent by Shenlha Okar. A Mongolian reference links Gesar and Shakyamuni. For some other Buddhists, he is an emissary of the Wisdom Kings of Shambhala, and for many Nyingmapas he is considered an emanation of Padmasambhava. Or was he the eldest of 15 sons “of Heavenly King Baifan,” according to the reporter of China Daily.

Some hold that Gesar was from Jisuya. He was born into a poor herder’s family and it was said a rainbow bridged a sky of fluffy clouds the day his mother, Gorsa, who was working in the fields at the time, felt the pangs of birth. She managed to make it up a large flat rock where her footprints are seen to this day.

Other legends say he was born in the border area of Yushu and Garze. People there describe his birthplace as: to the left of a cypress tree in a place resembling a horse’s tail; to the left of a bowl-like spring lying beneath a rock resembling an arrow.

“In a surprising coincidence,” says the Chinese article, the place at the confluence of two rivers where Gesar’s mother put up her yak hair tent, is amid the ruins of what is known as the Sutra Hall of King Gesar. Behind the ruins is a rock that indeed resembles an arrow. Local history says that the temple was built during the reign of Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Others insist it was built much earlier, during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) by Ling Gesgyia, offspring of Wonbo Nganu Huasang, one the four brave generals of King Gesar. Family records of the Mobudong clan and headman, Ling Chang, say that this was the family temple”.

Historical remains:

“Before the depredations of 1951 and the horrific “cultural revolution” which endured for over 10 years (beginning 1966,) the temple housed Gesar’s ivory seal, the family records of Gesar’s bailiff Ngan-yicha-geng, arrows used by General Nyiancha Ngadain, armour and weapons used by Gesar, some relics of Gesar’s father-in-law, a statue of Gesar’s horse, and clay figurines of Dainma, Shinba and Zhumao.”

(Pictured Above is the shield claimed to have been used by Gesar himself)

“Gone are the original frescoes depicting 30 generals of the State of Ling, 80 heroes who had distinguished themselves during the wars of pacification, 13 Buddhist guardians and the 18 consorts of Gesar. Other frescoes depicted military exploits.

To attract tourism, the Hall of King Gesar was rebuilt and “re-dedicated” in 1999″.

 

Historical relevance/accuracy:

“Somba Yexei Banjor is a scholar who opinion is that Gesar was a real person who lived in the Ling area of Kham.

“His birthplace lies in Lhagyixiong, where the three rivers — Yellow, Lancang River and Jinsha River — meet.” “It was to the left of the Dege Castle … with a mirror-like lake. In the area is a square-shaped rocky mountain. In the centre is a lawn where the parents of Gesar put up a tent.” The place was called Ghinyi Maguanqi. Ren Naiqiang did a 1929 survey of the Kham area in which he suggested that the area “under Headman Ling Chang in the Yarlung River Valley was called Xiongba.”

Gesar’s heirs claim descent through Ling Chang. “Gesar was born in the Chacha Temple,” Ren wrote. “After his birth, grass and flowers thrived in the area a year round. The temple houses Gesar’s weapons and an ivory seal but some of his belongings were moved by a magician lama to Xiangdana, located in Xiangqian County in Qinghai Province.”

In 1942, Li Ming, corroborated that Gesar was born in the area east of Shiqu called Xiongba that is on the western bank of the Yarlung. ”

“Whether a real person lies behind the epic hero Gesar is still debated. One of the earliest written instances of his name (as Gesar, king of Phrom) appears in a ninth-century Tibetan manuscript, and the name also appears on a coin that may refer to the king of a Central Asian kingdom in the ninth or tenth century. For most Tibetans he is an eleventh-century historical figure who ruled Ling (Tibetan, Gling), a principality in Khams, that reached its peak in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries”.

Sources:

1. 
   http://www.khandro.net/langnlit_Gesar.htm
   
2. 
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_King_Gesar
   
3. 
   http://www.kalachakra.org/articles/gesar.shtml
   
4. 
   http://www.bookrags.com/research/gesar-eorl-05/
   
5. 
   http://www.crosby-lundin.com/tibet/culture/folktales/gesarofling.html
   
6. 
   http://www.tibet.cn/tibetzt/tibet50-en/story/doc/story_815.htm
   
7. 
   http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm/473.html
   
8. 
   http://www.china.org.cn/ch-xizang/tibet/newbook/englishhtml/gesare.html
   

Links:

1. Robin Kornman – English interpreter of Gesar Epic
2. Tribute to Robert Kornman

Posted by: Jigme32

China purges Tibet gov’t of ethnic Tibetans in crackdown on Dalai Lama loyalists: report

The Associated Press
Published: August 10, 2007

BEIJING: China is cracking down on pro-Dalai Lama sentiment in Tibet by firing dozens of ethnic Tibetan officials and criticizing others who don’t speak out against the exiled spiritual leader, a rights group said Friday.

Since July, Communist Party secretaries from 54 of Tibet’s 74 counties have been fired and replaced by cadres from elsewhere in China, Hong Kong’s Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

“China currently has very little trust in its ethic Tibetan cadres and Tibet Party Secretary Zhang Qingli recently criticized them again for not being firm enough in the campaign to ‘Expose and criticize the Dalai Lama,’” it said, without giving details.

The group said China is beefing up numbers of non-ethnic Tibetan government personnel by appointing 853 volunteers from 17 Chinese provinces and cities to act as government cadres for three years. Government promises of bonuses and generous stipends for living expenses helped attract more than 10,000 volunteers, it said.

The telephone of Tibet’s government office in the capital of Lhasa rang unanswered Friday.

China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time.

Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand. Beijing enforces strict controls on religious institutions and routinely vilifies the 71-year-old Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 amid an aborted uprising against Chinese rule.

Tibetans are especially concerned that an influx of China’s Han majority, which has grown since a new railroad linked Beijing to Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, will overwhelm the region’s unique Buddhist culture.

Taken from:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/10/asia/AS-GEN-China-Tibetan-Crackdown.php

Posted by: Jigme32

Tibetans shun path of peace in their fight to free country

From The Times

August 9, 2007

By: Jeremy Page in Delhi

Thousands of Tibetans rallied in the Indian capital yesterday in the first protest of an aggressive new campaign to highlight Chinese abuses in Tibet in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

At least 10,000 Tibetan monks and other exiles, mostly from India and Nepal, joined the protest in the city centre, which coincided with a ceremony in Beijing to mark the one-year countdown to the Games.

“We will give our lives but not our land!” they chanted as they marched to Parliament House in Delhi, flanked by scores of paramilitary police. They also declared their support for 14 Tibetans on the 32nd day of a hunger strike.

The Tibetan Youth Congress, the radical group behind the hunger strike and yesterday’s protest, said that it was time to change tactics after almost 50 years of adhering to the Dalai Lama’s nonviolent creed.

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“This is a new beginning for the Tibetan struggle against Chinese occupation,” said Kalsang Phuntsok Godrukpa, president of the congress.

“The essence of the Olympics is equality, but we do not have equality in Tibet. China doesn’t deserve the Olympics until Tibet is free.” China, which claims that Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, sent troops into the region in 1950 to reassert its sovereignty after the Communist takeover in Beijing a year earlier.

The Dalai Lama, who claimed that Tibet was an independent nation, fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against the Chinese and has lived ever since in the north Indian town of Dharamsala.

In recent years, he has ceased advocating independence for Tibet and started calling for genuine autonomy within China to try to encourage negotiations with Beijing.

However, many of the estimated 200,000 Tibetans living in exile — mostly in India — continue to campaign for independence and feel increasingly frustrated with the lack of international support for their cause.

Young exiles, especially, are turning towards the Tibetan Youth Congress, which recognises the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader but disagrees with many of his policies and has advocated violent protest.

The congress was founded by Jamyang Norbu, a member of a short-lived Tibetan guerrilla movement that carried out raids on Chinese forces from neighbouring Nepal in the 1970s. Last month, he called for direct action against Western companies investing in China, including Yahoo!, and many young Tibetans appear to agree.

“What have we achieved in the last 50 years? If we don’t act soon, there’ll be nothing to fight for,” said Tseten Wangchuk, a 22-year-old Tibetan student who joined yesterday’s protest, draped in a Tibetan flag.

Nearby, the 14 hunger strikers lay on cots under a tarpaulin.

The Dalai Lama wrote to them yesterday, saying that their action was “highly commendable” but also “a form of violence” that could lead to the unnecessary loss of Tibetan lives.

“The immense hardships you have all endured so far have fulfilled a key objective: it has attracted much publicity and caught the attention of the international community as well as inspired Tibetans living inside and outside Tibet,” he said.

“In light of this, I earnestly appeal to you all to discontinue your hunger strike immediately.”

Indian police broke up the Tibetans’ last hunger strike in 1998, prompting one Tibetan man to set himself on fire. He died later in hospital.

Tashi Wangu, a 54-year-old farmer among the current hunger strikers, said that the 14 would continue their fast despite the Dalai Lama’s request. “The pain is nothing, and our demands are so simple,” he said.

“We just want a response from China guaranteeing Tibetans’ human rights.”

Taken from:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2224603.ece

Posted by: Jigme32