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
including 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, that 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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