The Epic of King Gesar, the longest heroic epic in the world, has been passed down orally for generations by Tibetans until the state placed it on the national key research project list.
Able to defeat the demons, aid the poor and benefit the common people, King Gesar is most popular hero in Tibet. He was endowed with special characteristics, marvelous powers and abilities. For thousands of years, the story of King Gesar has been orally passing down and continuously enriched by Tibetan folk artists in memory of the great hero. Thanks to great efforts from the folk artists, it has become the longest epic in the world.
As the only living epic in the world today, it was usually passed down orally. Only an extremely small amount of hand-written copies are kept in folk.
For fear of losing the precious cultural heritage, the central government has set up a special body and earmarked special funds for the collection, collation and publishing of the masterpiece.
With the in-depth of the work, today the study of King Gesar has become even hotter: about 36 classics on the research of King Gesar have been published while the expert group is becoming stronger.
Besides Tibet, the research group also launches investigation in Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces and Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, where the singing of King Gesar is widely popular.
By far, there are 140 King Gesar folk artists in China. Samdrup, 86, is one of the models. In the last 20 years, the old man has recorded 2,114 hours of audiotapes of King Gesar and the audiotapes have been published to 30 volumes. In the next three years, the amount is expected to reach 45.
"It is the first time for a folk artist to record the epic of King Gesar relatively unabridged," said Tsering Phuntsok, vice head of the Folk Academy of Tibet Autonomous Region Academy of Social Science.
According to Tsering Phuntsok, so far, 5,000 hours of audiotapes from Tibet have been recorded, 41 volumes have been collected and 32 hand-written copies have been compiled.
The Epic of King Gesar will declare for the world's intangible cultural heritage.
