Epic of King Gesar
|
|
The Epic of King Gesar is a Tibetan epic poem about King Gesar, who ruled the mythical Kingdom of Ling. Believed to be over 1000 years old, the epic was passed down collectively by oral tradition among the Tibetan people. The earliest manuscript versions were written by Buddhist monks at the beginning in the 11th century.
The epic is considered the longest literary work in the world. Although there is no one definitive compilation, if completed it would fill some 120 volumes, containing over 20 million words in more than one million verses.
About 140 Geser ballad singers survived today who could recite large tracts of the poem in parts, mainly from Tibetan, Mongolian and Tu ethnicities. The Axu prairie in Dege County, southwest of China's Sichuan Province, is believed by Chinese experts as the birthplace of Geser, the legendary hero of the Tibetan ethnicity. [1] (http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/36509.htm)
In the legend, King Gesar of the Ling tribe defeated King Sinchi of the Moin tribe. The location is Shannan Prefecture of China.