Tibetan Literature Masterpiece- "Legend of King Gesaer" 《格萨尔王传》

For those who are interested in classical Tibetan literature and culture, you might want to read the Tibetan literature masterpiece "Legend of King Gesaer". I can't find the tibetan version online, but the original Tibetan classic can be bought at chinese bookstore at http://book.danawa.com.cn/book/504252.html

For chinese translation, you can read it online at http://www.tibetinfor.com/zt/gesaer/gs_quanzhuan.htm

I've not yet found an English translation of this literature masterpiece.


Brief Information about this Tibetan Literature Masterpiece

Gesaer is one of the greatest heroic historical poetry anthology compiled by Tibetan people. Given its long history, majestic structure, rich content, it has become an important literature masterpiece among the Tibetan people. The Gesaer provided much valuable information about the pre-historical society of the Tibetan people and the high achievement in Tibetan culture. Over the course of the development of Tibetan literature and history, it also massed the knowledge of different Tibetan tribes with regard to history, society, nature, science, religion, moral ethics, customs, culture and art. It's one of the most important encyclopaedia and classics about Tibetan culture.

Today, the Gesaer has been sung by the Tibetan people in Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai.

It was believed that this poetry was produced from 300 BC till 600AD using the spread of verbal communication. By 12 century AD, the Gesaer became recorded using written form by the Tibetan Lamas and was widespread among the Tibetan people. The Tibetan philosopher 米梵姜扬嘉措 (sorry don't know the Tibetan translation) further compiled and published it.

Brief Information about the plot (storyline) of this literature



The story started from pre-historical times and talked about 3 great buddhist leaders who transformed Tibet from a 'barbaric period' into an "Imperial Empire" (from 700-900 AD). The most famous buddhist leader was Lotus master. He sworn to quelch the chaos in Tibet. But because many demons were not subdued, the chaos continued and Tibet was ruled by Man-eating Demons and barbarian nomads. In turn, it was divided into many small kingdoms in which each kingdom's ruler is evil and greedy.


In order to resolve the chaos and conflict, many heavenly being such as Buddha, Manjusri Bodhisattva, Avalotekiteshvara and many dragon tribes decided to dispatch a hero to subdue these demons. In the end, it chose the smallest son of Cangba Gapo 仓巴噶波 (White Sky), who's called Wenxi 闻喜 to be reborn into Tibet.


He was reborn into a dragon lady as a boy called Jueru 觉如 and became the prince of Mountain kingdom. Jueru had a brother from 2nd mother who was a brave warrior. Because Jueru's behavior was not proper, he was dispatched to Huanghe region as exile. When he was 12 years old, he came back to participate in a horse race and won the throne to the kingdom. He was called "World Lion King Gesaer Ruobuzadui" (世界雄狮大王格萨尔罗布扎堆).

After Gesaer became a king, he killed the man-eating black demon Ruzhan 鲁赞. His wife was snatched away by the king White Tent of Woer Kingdom. King Gesaer killed King White tent and snatched back his wife. He also conquered Kingdom Jiang (Yunan province) and Kingdom Meng (Himalaya)


Besides, he also established 18 good achievements including conquering Tajik and Muslim.

When Gesaer was 80 years old, he went to Hell to save his wife and mother and then leave his kingdom to return back to heaven.

There are german translations available for a number of Mongolian epics on King Geser, but I don't know how similar they are to the tibetan versions.

http://tibettalk.wordpress.com/?s=gesar

I can post an article and scan some paintings of the Gesar legend I have if you guys want.

On another note, there is a theory that the name Gesar is a corruption of the word Caesar.

“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".

Well Byzantium is often called "New Rome." Also, Caesar was used as a name for the Eastern Roman Emperors as well.

is there a work about Ling's history after Gesar's death? if so, what?