This paper will deal with four issues first, position and importance of ballad singers of King Gesar; second, effective measures for rescue and preservation of Legend of King Gesar taken by the Chinese Government since the 1980s; third, challenges facing oral tradition of King Gesar in the 21 century, and consideration and measures for rescue and preservation of oral tradition. It aims to provide theoretical basis and real example and arouse deeper awareness for preservation of oral and intangible cultural heritages in the world, to reserve a brilliant chapter for cultural diversity in China and the world, and to make due contribution to sustainable development of human culture and preservation and development of Tibetan culture.

I. Position and Importance of Epic Gesar Ballad Singers

Dubbed as Orient Iliad, Legend of King Gesar (hereinafter referred to as Gesar) is so far the longest heroic epic in the world. It is also a living oral epic that is still narrated by people. In the long historical process, this epic regarded as a precious classic of the whole nation has been passed down and disseminated orally by those illiterate folk artists. They have created the epic and constantly enriched and improved it in their perennial narration, so this epic is the result of collective wisdom of the people and the unique cultural specimen that appeared in the cultural field in a specific era. Those folk singers without leaving their names behind for generations are worthy of title of China Homer.

It is due to these singers - carriers of this great epic that we can now record, compile and publish this comparatively complete epic Gesar.

In 2000, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Tibet Academy of Social Sciences jointly started to compile and publish this epic according to the narrations by Sangdrup. So far the narrations have been kept in 2000h recordings and 21 parts with 23 volumes have been published. It is expected that all the 44 parts will be published in the coming 3 years. This is by far the longest and most complete original narrative recording text of this epic we have recorded, compiled and published. The publication of the narrative text by Gesar ballad singer Sangdrup will provide valuable data for epic studies.

II. Effective Measures for Rescue and Preservation of Gesaiin China

In the early 1980s, we young generation incumbently undertook the critical historical task of rescuing our national cultural heritages.  Rescue and compilation of epic Gesar was listed as a national key project in philosophy and social sciences the 6th Five-Year Plan period. Later, it was listed as a national key project in the 7t' Five-Year Plan and 8t' Five-Year Plan periods and key project of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In a long period of two decades, we have made remarkable achievements in rescuing this epic. Leadership teams and research organizations for this task were established in the central government and Tibetan regions such as Tibet, Qinghai etc., and special funds were allocated for this task. The achievements mainly include

Over 150 living ballad singers have been found early or later based on general survey. Over 5000h recording of the narrations by these singers have been accumulated, with video data kept for some singers. With old-aged singers passing away, there audio and video data provide important basis for the academic circle of epic literature to study oral tradition. In addition, 289 manuscripts and woodcut parts have been collected in various regions, and 80 parts are available except alternative versions.

Around 120 parts of Gesar in Tibetan, 22 parts in Mongolian and 2 parts in native language, 30 Chinese translations from Tibetan and 5 Chinese translations from Mongolian have been published based on rescue.

While rescuing this epic, multi-aspect research was carried out for this epic, with fruitful achievements made. A scholar team composed of nearly 100 scholars from the nationalities such as Tibetan, Mongolian, Han and Tu etc. has been established. Gesar study has become the most active disciplines in the Tibetological circle in our country. So far, the 6th International Gesar Study Seminar has been held, in which a total of 35 works, essay proceedings and study collections were published. Thus the situation that the hometown of epic Gesar is in China but its study center is located abroad has been changed. Gesar study in our country based on first hand data is moving towards the world. In the four sessions the International Conference on Tibetan Studies which was held in Graz, Austria in July 1995, in Indiana University, UAS in August 1998, in Leiden, Holland in July 2000 and in Bonn, Germany in August 2006 respectively, no Gesar forum presided over by Chinese scholars was held.

The achievements made Gesar rescue and preservation in our country in recent years got extensive world attention. In the 31st UNESCO World Congress held in October 2001 in Paris, China Gesar Millennium Commemoration, as a participatory program of UNESCO, was listed in its 2002-2003 Commemoration List. In this may, Gesar preservation was listed in the List of China The Intangible Culture Heritage. This opened the new chapter for epic rescue and preservation.

III. Challenges Facing Gesar Ballad in the 21st Century

An old cultural tradition formed in a specific cultural background. It is constantly integrated and developed over hundred years of historical progress. It should face both tradition and reality. In inheritance of tradition, it was restricted and selected by reality, so any tradition is not unalterable. However, regretfully, many traditional cultures dropped out the historical stage with advance of times. Just like the case for the oral tradition of world-renown epics Iliad and Ramayana, whose oral traditions has been replaced by written dissemination, oral narration tradition of Gesar is no exception. It is witnessing gradual transition from oral to written dissemination, so oral tradition is now facing the challenge of declining or even withering away. Such challenge comes from the following aspects

Change of living environment, impact of other cultures, quickening of living tempo and so on have influence on continuing of oral tradition for epics;

The nomad living style is replaced by settlement and semi-nomad state, so the narrative environment of epic has change; The contemporary education is gradually popularized among young people, so traditional cultures are less attractive to them;

Tourism booming has impact on traditional cultures.

We are now living in an era with robust economic development and rapid social change. With progress of economic transformation, the fact we cannot neglect is that traditional cultures are facing various challenges, so it is imperative for us to rescue and preserve this oral tradition.

IV. Reflection upon Rescue and Preservation of Gesar Ballad Singers and Subsequent Measures

Refection upon rescue and preservation of Gesar in the past two decades gives us plenty of valuable enlightenment. A substantial stride is made from positioning of Gesar as a work of folk literature to understanding of oral tradition and refection is made upon rescue in traditional concept. Demonstration of this oral cultural heritage Gesar helps us to have a deeper understanding of Gesar, a carrier of cultural accumulation of Tibet nationality and provides a theoretical basis for effective rescue and preservation in future.

1. Reflection on Previous Rescue and Preservation

The purpose of rescue is to achieve better preservation. However, like a double-edged sword, an improper rescue measure may result in devastation of the rescued object. This is the fact we have to admit as we also performed improperly in rescue and collection of folk literature in the 1950s and rescue of Gesar over the past two decades.

First, taking my field investigations in the 1980s-90s for example, at that time, I had been to every part of the regions where Gesar was disseminated just to visit singers of this epic, and met with nearly 40 outstanding artists, including 26 artists with divine favor. However, I was very poorly equipped, with only a recorder and a camera. Luckily, thanks to these apparatuses we kept the photos and interview data of most outstanding artists. After two decades has passed, digital video recorders are now available to us, but most of these outstanding artists have passes away. Among the abovementioned 26 artists, 8 are still alive but most are old and weak. Therefore, we can no longer have the opportunity to enjoy their vivid narrating scene and interaction with the audience. What we can do now is to describe with a pen and record the life environment and narrating scenes of these artists. Nowadays, most data preserved in various provinces and regions are audiotapes of narrations of these artists, with only a few video data, but some of these audiotapes have been demagnetized.

Second, poor understanding of oral tradition or treating oral literature from a perspective of written literature led to our mistaken ideas in rescue of narration. Setting out from a traditional concept, some looked down upon these illiterate singers and held that their narrations were folk language of common people and not so brilliant and with good taste as the works created by writers. Some compilers even delete some parts they considered verbose without authorization and mixed different versions of the epic together to produce the so-called fine works. Deletion and modification distorted the oral epic and led to deviation of the published epic version from its original contents of oral narration.

In addition, some singers were invited to live in city so as to make recordings for rescue. Although the original intention of this move is to make rapid and better rescue, singers were separated from the cultural environment where they had long lived and this led to transmutation of their narration. Oral tradition of Gesar is now facing the serious situation and challenge of withering away, but challenge and opportunity always coexist. Luckily, we are living in an era in which living oral epics still exist. Compared with researchers of Homeric Epics and Indian epics, we are lucky to be able to see Gesar ballad singers and their living performance of oral tradition. As long as we are willing to step into the fields, we can capture the performance of this oral tradition. By observation, recording  and studying, we can add new data for studies of epics in the world and make rescue and preservation under the guidance of studies. Some young epic singers are found recently in Nagqu and Chamdo of Tibet and Golog and Yushu of Qinghai. They have inherited the ancient singing tradition and make improvement for them, providing a new topic for our studies.

2. Future Plan and Action

A number of key epic tradition preservation bases and professional schools for epic performances and community epic performance sites should be established to create necessary conditions for continuing oral performance tradition. In addition, researchers carried out long-term field tracking observation and field studies so as to accumulate firs-hand data, promote protective measures with academic research and preserve oral performance tradition in epic cultural ecology. So far, Golog Gesar Ballad Research Base, Derge Gesar Ballad Research Base and Maqu Gesar Oral Tradition Research Base have been established in Tibetan regions by the Institute of Minority Literature of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the China National Gegar Leadership Team. We believe they will play an important role in preservation of oral tradition.

China Archives for Gesar study should be established to extensively collect and preserve various textual folk materials, audio and video materials of performances by singers, and relevant cultural relics etc., and to compile complete epic tradition directories, files and lists of epic songs to provide research sites and data for domestic and foreign epic researchers.

Native education of epic tradition should be promoted, and it is suggested to incorporate epic contents into the textbooks for primary and middle school students to promote traditional culture education among young people. Courses or major on Gesar study should be established in universities to cultivate professional personnel for rescue, preservation and study of the epic.

An International Art Festival for Epic Gesar should be held periodically, and efforts should be continually strengthened in holding the tri-yearly International Seminar on Gesar to promote academic research and exchange among epic study circles at home and abroad.

In conclusion, we have made enormous efforts and achieved fruitful results in rescuing oral tradition of this epic in the past two decades, but we still have an arduous task ahead. Taking a primary task and reasonability, we should never slacken our efforts in rescue and preservation of oral tradition of this epic. It is our sacred mission to persistently pursue the truth in the world.

Yang Enhong, Senior Researcher of Chinese Academy of Social

Oct. 11, 2006