The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling [antikvár]

FOREWORD The Gesar of Ling Epic is the Iliad of Central Asia. The hero who has given it his name is as well known and popular with the Tibetans as with the Manchus; his adventures are recited round Lake Baikal as in the Altai Mountains. Temples that are dedicated to Gesar have been found in China, and it has been questioned whether he is not to be recognized in Kuan-ti, the war-god adopted by the Manchu Emperors. On the other hand, it has been considered whether in the name Gesar there is not to be found a distant echo of that of Cesar, which undoubtedly penetrated into the mysterious depths of Asia. It has been recognized that certain of the episodes in the Epic have been borrowed from those romantic tales of Alexander the Great that had no less success in the East than in the West. The original nature of the work has been much discussed: some declare it to be Buddhist; others anti-Buddhist; others again see in it a solar myth that symbolizes winter and spring. The Mongolian version of the work has been accessible to the European reader for nearly a century; I. J. Schmidt made a German translation of it as early as 1839. Several Tibetan versions, very unequal in length, have been reported, of which we possess a few manuscripts. Recently, in Calcutta, the missionary A. H. Franke printed a version that he had heard recited in Lower-Ladakh. But, if in Europe we make books about it, in its native land the Gesar Epic is essentially a living and spoken thing. It also can say: "Volito vivu per ora vivum".