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The long-standing folk literature and art of the
Tibetan nationality has distinctive national and regional
characteristics. From the 1950s, literary and art workers of
Tibetan and Han nationalities began to concentrate their
attention in this field. After a long period of research,
Tibetan Folk Stories and other works were eventually
published.
In the 1984 instruction on
the works in Tibet by the Central Committee of the Chinese
Communist Party, it is clearly written: ''The Tibetan
nationality has old and unique cultural tradition as well as
rich and colorful literature and artistic heritages. This
nationality is good at singing and dancing. We should pay
great respect to it, and do our utmost to inherit and
develop Tibetan national culture and art, as well as protect
its historical heritages in a scientific way,'' In line with
the spirit expressed in this instruction, the Tibet
Autonomous Region's government devoted a vast amount of
manpower, as well as material and financial resources into a
well-organized and large-scale work-study project of folk
music, dances, operas, songs, rhymes, proverbs, fables,
legends and stories. By the end of 1992, hundreds of
millions of words had been compiled of the folk literatures
of Tibet, Monba and Lhoba Nationalizes. The barge folk
literature series included Collection of Tibet Folk Stories,
Collection of Tibetan Ballads, Collection of Tibetan
Proverbs, Collection of Tibetan Folk Dances, Collection of
Tibetan Folk Music, Annals of Tibetan Opera , and Annals of
Tibetan Folk Art. This literatures helped to save and
protect the national cultural heritages
effectively.
After the founding of New
China, efforts to Save the Life of King Gesar should,
especially, be mentioned here. This is a great ballad - epic
about an ancient Tibetan hero; it is the longest epic in the
world. It tells about King Gesr and his followers' brave and
resourceful struggles against evil forces. It also tells us
much about ancient Tibetan society, including war,
production, living styles, nationality, religion, morality,
love and family, It is a virtual encyclopedia about the
lives of ancient Tibetans, and of high aesthetic and
academic value. This epic provides invaluable material for
today ' s study of ancient philosophy, social science,
history, culture, ethnology, religion and
aesthetics.
In the past, Life of King
Gesar was transmitted down orally. However, there was great
danger that this cultural treasure would be lost. From the
1950s, the State began a series of measures to save this
epic. After 1978, Life of King Gesar was listed as the State
Important Scientific Research Project for the Sixth and
Seventh Five -Year Plan periods. The Folk Literature
Research Institute of the Social Science Academy of China
and related regions and provinces, such as Tibet, Qinghai
and Sichuan where this epic had left its traces all set up
special leading groups and working teams for this work.
These departments coordinated all work and research. They
also organized related academic discussions and performances
of folk artists. In Tibet alone, from concerned working
departments had collected more than 180 editions for oral
telling and singing, and 83 copies recorded in woodblock and
handwriting. They put together a catalogue, including seven
parts, 18 chapters and 149 stories, totaling 174 sections.
They also had recorded 70 related stories from folk artists
using more than 3,000 types; in addition, they found a batch
of legendary ruins of King Gear, 11 original objects said
once used by him, as well as 30 folk legends. These
materials totaled an estimated 80 books with about one
million lines containing 15 million words. To date, more
than 20 books have been produced. Moreover, Collection of
King Gesar Study, which fully demonstrates the fruits of
this project over the past half century, was recently published.
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