Wangzhag, a Gesar researcher based in Yushu, says the Tibetans believed all the “God-taught” ballad singers’ fortunes lay in their ability to pass on King Gesar’s legend.
“Nearly all the bards wandered about and lived in poverty throughout their lives,” says Wangzhag.
In recent years, however, the impact of modernization has motivated some epic singers to change their calling.
Sonam Norbu, one of the best-known singers in Yushu’s Zhidoi County during the 1990s, gave up his inspired mission to become a businessman.
“It’s a pity that when he died, he didn’t leave behind any recordings or texts of the epic he once sang so well,” says Wangzhag.
The epic of King Gesar is considered the crowning masterpiece of Tibetan folk literature.
Only around 130 Gesar singers are alive, including Tibetans, Mongolians and members of the Tu ethnic group. Most are illiterate herders or peasants from the Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
All the singers claim they were suddenly able to sing the ballad after a strange dream or a serious ailment.
Dawa says he was blessed to become a King Gesar singer and will devote his life to singing the epic.
“I’m lucky to be singing at a time of economic boom — a time when an airplane can take me to where my ancestors could never get, even if they had walked all their lives,” he says.
New technologies have spread King Gesar’s legend to a larger audience, with MP3 and CD versions of the epic available in distant cities.
Dawa has sung more than 100 episodes and his singing has been recorded into 28 audio releases. Meanwhile, he has helped compile seven volumes of King Gesar texts, four of which have been published.
“I hope my son will become a King Gesar researcher if he’s not a ‘God-taught’ singer like me,” he says.
The boy, age 11, is very interested in the epic and enjoys his father’s singing.
Dawa is one of 12 “God-taught” epic singers in Yushu prefecture. They receive a 1,000-yuan (US$163) monthly stipend from the local government.
“It’s essential to preserve the cultural heritage in its original form. Otherwise, it will one day exist only in text in museums,” says Wangzhag.
China, in its three-decade-long campaign to preserve the million-line epic, has recorded 5,000 hours of singing and compiled 36 volumes. The epic has also given rise to a whole field of study referred to as “Gesarology.”
The epic has been adapted into symphonies, musicals and dramas.
“We can expect King Gesar to be a familiar icon on the international stage in the near future,” says Yi Na, a cultural researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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