Gesar

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Tibetan name
Tibetan script :
གླིང་ གེ་ སར་ རྒྱལ་ པོའ ི་ སྒྲུང་
Wylie transliteration :
gling ge sar rgyal po'i sgrung
Pronunciation in IPA :
[ liŋ kʰesaː ʈʂuŋ ]
Official transcription of the PRCh :
Ling Kêsar Gyaiboi Zhung
THDL transcription :
Ling Gesar Drung
Other spellings:
Geser, Gesser, Kesar
Chinese name
Traditional :
《格薩爾 王 傳》
Simplified :
《格萨尔 王 传》
Pinyin :
Gésà'ěr Wáng chuán

Gesar is an epic Tibetan king whose heroic deeds are described in chants performed by bards , collectively called Gesar Epic . This epic is considered to be the largest Central Asian epicycle.

This corpus of stories contains the basic theme of the struggle of the good Tibetan ruler Gesar, who is born as a human being, but has many divine abilities, against the evil in the world. Gesar's warlike and cunning deeds are passed on in the form of chants throughout Central Asia from Ladakh to Mongolia , but especially in Eastern Tibet , which is why it is usually called Gesar's epic. It exists in Tibetan, Mongolian (ᠭᠡᠰᠡᠷ
ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠤ
ᠲᠤᠭᠤᠵᠢ, Гэсэрийн тууж) and Turkish language. The speakers were and are z. Sometimes there are special Gesar bards, some of whom can memorize texts of the size of thick books.

The epic is very extensive and begins with the creation of the world. It was likely designed to last for several days.

content

Wall painting by Gesar

The Gesar saga, the great national epic of Central Asia, especially of the Mongols and the Tibetans, glorifies the struggles of Gesar Chan, Indra's second-born son (according to one of the numerous traditions) , who was sent to earth on behalf of the Buddha for peace and justice create. An expelled king's daughter from Tibet is chosen to be the mother of the son of gods, who grows up as a child of terrifying ugliness, sometimes regarded as weak-minded, sometimes as the brood of devils, but who knows how to gain respect. At the age of 13 he won a girl of rare beauty named Aralgo as his wife. As a second wife, he wins a king's daughter in battle, to whom he reveals himself in his supernatural form on the bed. This concludes the first book.

The three following books sing about the conquest of a dragon and the struggle for a third wife, daughter of a foreign prince, at whose court Gesar stayed for three years. Then in a magical way through Aralgo, his first wife, notified that his wicked uncle Tschotong is striving to destroy her, Gesar mounts his wonderful brown, who in a minute is going to sweep the whole earth, and frees his wife, who is now looking after him to tie himself up, enter the potion of oblivion.

The fifth and most important book of the saga fills the story of the Shiraigol war, which real events may have served as a historical basis. The reason for the war was the prince of Schiraigol, who wanted to steal Rogmo, Gesar's second wife, and made an incursion into Tibet for this purpose, while Gesar, not suspecting the event because of the Aralgo drink, stayed in a magical castle far from Tibet . The Tibetans stand by Rogmo and are initially victorious; but when the best of the Tibetan heroes is slain, their general confusion takes over. Tschotong, the evil principle in the legend, delivers Rogmo and ascends the throne himself, while he condemns Gesar's parents to the lowest service. Frightened by unusual signs, Gesar finally regains his strength and moves towards Tibet. Anger kindles him when he sees his mother with his shoulder rubbed by heavy ropes; through them he learns everything. With cunning he first made his uncle Tschotong a prisoner; then he tries to wrest his wife Rogmo from the prince of Schiraigol, who has given him her love in the meantime. When she is finally in Gesar's possession again, she has to consume the heart of her wooing as evening meal as a punishment for her infidelity; then Gesar starts the way back to Tibet with her and lives there quietly in the joy of the gods .

Reception in Tibet

This epic goes back to before Buddhist times (or deals with a pre-Buddhist time), and so the content is not (or only superficially) shaped by Buddhism. For ordained people reading the epic (at least officially) is considered a useless worldly pastime. With Tibetan lay people, however, it is still very popular in all parts of the country and is offered, for example, as an audio book on cassettes in local dialects, since no single dialect (like that of Lhasa) is understood by all Tibetans.

Etymology of the name 'Gesar'

Gesar, King of Ling ( Tib. <gling>), is referred to in some Tibetan sources as the ruler of <khrom> or <phrom>, which is phonetically like [ pʰɽom ] or [ ʈʰɽom ] (depending on the dialect). This is similar to the East Persian * frôm, hrôm, which means "Rome" (Roman Empire, Byzantium). Likewise, the name "Gesar" reminds of "Caesar" in the old Latin pronunciation ([ kaesar ], vlat. However [ tʃeːsare ]), v. a. but Greek-Byzantine [ kaisar ] - only typically Tibetan with monophthonging and non-aspiration of the initial sound: [ ke̲ːsa (ɽ) ]. It is therefore widely accepted that the hero of this epic derives his name from Caius Iulius Caesar . However, this ends the similarity with the historical original.

Gesar

Geser is the leader of the night watch and the spokesman for the forces of light in the novel " Watchers of the Night " by Sergej Lukjanenko . The character of the novel is supposed to be the mythical Gesar from the Tibetan sagas, since its Asian origins are repeatedly suggested.

See also

swell

  1. ↑ According to a writing more than 170 years old, also Gesser Chan , cf. J. Schmidt 1839, reprinted 1966
  2. ↑ See Stephan V. Beyer: The classical Tibetan language. SUNI, New York 1992, p. 140
  3. ↑ ISBN 3-453-53080-2

literature

  • Alexandra David-Néel; Lama Yongden: La vie surhumaine de Guésar de Ling le héros tibétain racontée par les bardes de son pays. Paris 1995 (reprint).
  • Matthias Hermanns: The national epic of the Tibetans Gling König Ge sar , 1836, reprinted Regensburg 1965.
  • Isaak Jakob Schmidt (transl.): The deeds of Bogda Gesser Chan's, the devourer of the root of the ten evils in the ten regions. An East Asian heroic legend , Osnabrück 1966. ( also 1839 )
  • Tanma Jamyang Tsultrim: "Cultural Relics of the Tana Monastery in Yushu and Gesar", in: Tibet Studies , 1991, no. 1, pp. 184-190.
  • August Hermann Francke (Tibetologist) : A Lower Ladakhi Version of the Kesar Saga. (Bibliotheca India Work No. 168) Calcutta 1905-1941.
  • August Hermann Francke: The spring and winter myth of the Kesar legend. Contributions to the knowledge of the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet and Ladakh. (Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne XV) Osnabrück 1968 (reprint; original edition 1902).
  • Andreas Gruschke: Myths and Legends of the Tibetans , Munich 1996, ISBN 3-424-01309-9
  • "King Gesar Palace and relics", in: Andreas Gruschke: The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces: Kham - vol. 2. The Qinghai Part of Kham , Bangkok 2004, pp. 153-154.
  • Walther Heissig : Geser Redzia-wu. Dominik Schröder's postponed Monguor (Tujen) version of the Geser epic from Amdo. (Asian research, volume 70) Wiesbaden 1980.
  • Walther Heissig: Geser studies. Investigations into the narrative material in the "new" chapters of the Mongolian Geser cycle. (Treatises of the Rhenish-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Volume 69) Opladen 1983.
  • Walther Heissig: Geser Khan , in: Enzyklopädie des Märchen , Volume 5, ed. by R. W. Brednich. Berlin, New York 1987.
  • Silke Herrmann: Kesar versions from Ladakh. (Asian research, volume 109) Wiesbaden 1991.
  • S. Ju. Nekljudov; Z. Tömörceren: Mongolian stories about Gesar. New records. (Asian research, volume 92) Wiesbaden.
  • Bruno J. Richtsfeld: Geser Khan legends from the Tsaidam area (PR China, Qinghai province) , in: Munich contributions to ethnology. Yearbook of the State Museum of Ethnology. Munich 7, 2002, pp. 187-246.
  • Bruno J. Richtsfeld: Gesar traditions of the Monguor (Tu) , in tribe. Yearbook of the Linden Museum Stuttgart , 53, 2004, pp. 99–117.
  • Bruno J. Richtsfeld: Gesar-Erzählungen der Yuguren (PR China) , in: Central Asiatic Journal 49, 2005, pp. 213–283.
  • Bruno J. Richtsfeld: Birth and youth of the hero in the Gesar epic of the Monguor (PR China, Qinghai province) , in: Anthropos 101, 2006, pp. 473–497.
  • Bruno J. Richtsfeld: Birth and youth of the hero in the Gesar epic of the Monguor (PR China, Qinghai province) (continued) , in: Anthropos 102, 2007, pp. 115-134.
  • Geoffrey Samuel: " Ge sar of Ling. The Origins and Meaning of the East Tibetan Epic." In: Ihara Shōren 伊 原 照 蓮, Yamaguchi Zuihō 山口 瑞 鳳 (ed.): Tibetan Studies. Proceedings of the 5th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies . Naritasan Shinshoji 成 田 山 新 勝 寺, Narita 1992, pp. 711-722.
  • Rolf A. Stein: L'épopée tibétaine de Gesar dans sa version lamaique de Ling. (Annales du Musée Guimet, Bibliothèque d'Etudes, Tome 61) Paris 1956.
  • Rolf A. Stein: Recherches sur l'épopée et le barde au Tibet. (Bibliothèque de l'Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, Vol. XIII) Paris 1959.

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