King Gesar, an epic created orally by the Tibetans long ago, covers ethnic groups, language, religion, civil affairs, literature and arts, history, politics, military, ethic, ecology and psychology, etc. Thus it is viewed as Tibetan encyclopedia. A study of the epic shows that in view of the forefathers of the Tibetans, man and nature both have souls and are equal life forms with religious dignity. It is mainly represented in following aspects, the idea of “respecting life and nature” as its core.

Harmony between man and nature

According to Tibetan legend, sky and earth come before all other things and are source of everything. Owing to floating clouds and falling rains in the sky, all things came into their existing forms and then pass to generations endlessly. So, only by knowing nature and learning its laws, can man be united with nature where humankind exists in nature and nature exists in humankind.

The forefathers of the Tibetans regarded nature as the source of human life as well as human  life values. Man is part of the world and all things on the earth have their own existing value, so all of them deserve respect and protection. The ancients held that man’s acts should be beneficial to the co-existence of all things in the world. They sought for harmony in interests and value between man and nature.

They also held that the relationship between man and nature should be dealt with after re-surveying and developing the “friend and partnership” elements between man and nature. According to the Birth of the Hero in King Gesar, regarding Gesar’s participation in a horse race, “after hearing the introduction from Gesar, Mother Gormo and Zhomo went to catch the horse with the help of the Heaven God, Dragon God and God Memory. When coming to the mouth of the Maolan Mountain, they found the Banna Mountain covered by wild horse herds everywhere. Some horses were wandering and some were eating grass in the valleys.” All other wild horses ran away except a Red Rabbit Horse (it became Gesar’s war horse later). It ran to Mother Gormo, “that precious horse leaned on Gesar like a child who had been separated from his mother for a long time. Gesar also fondled it gently for a long time.” From this, we can see the close ties and sincere friendship between Gesar and holy horse, and this shows the ancient Tibetan people saw the relationship between man and nature as that of a friendly partnership, so the development of man could be harmonious with the development of nature.

More than 100 years ago, Engels said that one should not excessively revel in human victory over nature; for nature would surly retaliate. King Gesar also reveals a similar idea. In Conquest of the Kaqeyu Zong Tribe there is a proverb that the “white stone wall looks solid, but the red thunder can break it. Sandalwood seems have many branches but red fire can burn it.” Those proverbs warn that man should get along with nature for mutual development. 

Co-existence in worship on nature

King Gesar reveals that, in considering man and nature, ancient Tibetans thought all things in the nature had lives and nimbus, for example, the mountain has its Mountain God, water its Water God etc. This includes not only animals with feeling and consciousness but also plants and minerals without feeling and consciousness. Even those mountains, grass and trees, land, rock, air, spring water, rivers and seas without feeling and consciousness all have souls and their existence value. So, a mountain is respected as a holy mountain, and a lake is respected as a holy lake, and the essence and original intention of respect is to guide the ecological balance and form specific arrangements to ensure protection. For example, it is forbidden to cut down holy trees on the mountain or to cut grass and allow a herd to graze, open up a sloping field, turn over stones, pollute a water source, hunt for fish or kill wild animals at will on holy mountains.

In Birth of the Hero, Gesar and his mother were exiled by his uncle Chaotong from the State of Ling because Gesar killed three antelopes in Seyuri La, killed seven calves in Gyiboin Calves Farm later and finally killed the white forehead spirit foal in horse land of Chaotong. Then, he wore an antelope cap, calf hide cloth and spirit foal shoes, and went to mountain to hunt for deer for pilose antler; went to the river beach to beat the yellow goat with stones and hunt for wild donkey by rope, and sometimes went to kill wild animals on the mountains. All these deeds violated the taboo in his tribe and were viewed as terrible offenses. He was isolated from the Ling tribes and received the severest punishment: being exiled, which can be seen as a form of ecological protection.

Take Battle Between the State of Hor and the State of Ling as another example. Sinba Meiruze sang the following verses:

Unscrupulous and bold fishers,

do you know?

Hor mountains and rivers all belong

to Hor native land.

Countless fish in river live together with Hor men.

Three gold eye fish of them are soul fish of Hor three kings.

In valleys of our Hor, men are

forbidden to hunt,

In rivers of our Hor, men are

forbidden to fish.

Anyone who hunts for animals or fish should be punished severely

without pardon!

From this we can see what attitude Tibetan forefathers held for animals. At the same time they had taboos related to mountains, lakes and seas. Before holy mountains, various tribes prayed for good float grass, good livestock, the safety of officials and the common people and for no visitations of illness or disaster. The nominal meaning of these deeds is to respect the Mountain God to bless the growing of grass and trees and protect them from natural disaster, but the essential meaning is the special protection the forefathers wish to stress for the eco-environment so as to protect the living environment of nature.

Evidently, the respect for nature inherent in this request in early times for men to care for nature in the name of respecting the gods was also a way of maintaining an ecological balance in their tribes. 

Ecological sense on “soul” objects

In the epic, ancient Tibetans expressed their living sense that man’s life can survive only by being entrusted to the care of the gods of nature. It can also be understood that man’s soul can depart from the body and be entrusted to things outside. The soul can be hidden in other soul objects that can be animals, plants and other things. For example, in the Battle Between the State of Chang and the State of Ling, the female general Ngada Lhamo directed Ling troops to hunt for the soul ox of General Chulha of the Chang and sang,

...Red horn of wild ox is founded

of brass,

Sharp point of horn was in flame.

Four hoofs are also founded of brass,

Sound of running water comes from cracks of hoofs.

Shoulders are turning round like wheels,

Brain bone is turning over like axle.

Dark clouds spit out of mouth,

Cold wind and snow spurts out of nose.

I shoot an arrow toward the liver of

the wild ox,

It can destroy the digestion of Chulha wonderfully.

I shoot an arrow toward the lung of

the wild ox,

It can destroy the breath of Chulha wonderfully.

Shoot an arrow exactly at heart of

the wild ox,

It is effective to devitalize Chulha.

If wild ox does not die, it can be viewed the most savage one...

It shows that if ancient Tibetans wanted to attack someone, they should destroy the soul objects of this person. For another example, before Gesar destroyed the Devil King Lhutsang, he destroyed the soul object of Lhutsang according to the clues Meisa provided and with her cooperation and assistance. The major characters in King Gesar all have their own soul object. For example, the soul object of King Gesar is the snow mountain Nganyi Maqen; that of Zhomo is the Zhaling Lake; that for the Hor White, Yellow and Black tent kings are white, yellow and black wild ox, etc. In epic, the soul objects of characters include snow mountain, lakes and seas, jade snake, jade bee, tree, wild ox, big black bear, owl, wild man, fish, etc. Soul objects cover various species. Generally not only a person has soul object, but also a tribe has one. Once these soul objects were attacked or destroyed, the lives of those persons would be in danger. The life of soul object is closely connected with that of the person. So, everyone needed to pay close attention to the care and protection of their own soul object. Anything related to the belief of life was preserved carefully and would not be disclosed easily. For sanctification, they respected and believed in the soul objects, which protected not only the living things but also the surrounding eco-environment. 

Restoration of meadows

In King Gesar there is a descriptive passage that, when Gesar and his mother were exiled and went to Mayu, the shrewmouse in the six mountains in Zhanlung became spirits,

Black earth on mountains is turned over,

Grass on mountainsides is cut off,

Grass root on river beach was

eaten up,

If man goes there,

He will be buried by dust,

If livestock goes there,

It will be tortured to death by

starvation.

At that time Mayu was desolate and uninhabited. Meadow grass dried out, the land situation had degenerated, and it was very lonely and desolate. Gesar made use of stone throwing machines and killed the king of shrewmouse-the big acaudal mouth mouse, small shrewmouse with multi-eyes and the minister of shrewmouse-the blue ear mouse, as well as all other shrewmice. Three years later, “from the top to the foot of the mountains in the Mayu meadow, it is flourishing and it is estimated to accommodate herds from the six tribes of the State of Ling for more than three years”. It warns people that once the natural situation surrounding human beings is destroyed by nature or men, it should be restored immediately to ensure harmonious co-existence.

The above shows each region is responsible for ecological protection and should take the initiative to restrict and fight against all deeds harmful to the ecology. Construction of the ecology should also be promoted and people should take the initiative to participate in various activities beneficial to the ecological development. 

Sense of back to new life

King Gesar introduced fire burial, heaven burial, water burial, pagoda burial and earth burial. At that time Tibetans connected various burial forms with nature. Pursuit of harmony in co-existence of man and nature is represented in a concentrated form in view of soul’s return to new life in the burial custom.

Maybe people would think water burial and fire burial would pollute the water source and the air on the plateau. In fact, the population is very scarce on Tibetan plateau and there are many mountains and rivers. The daily foul water and waste of the herders is limited and will not pollute the environment. In water burial, corpses are put into some relatively large rivers and feed many fish living there, which also realizes the wish of returning to nature. Heaven burial combines man with nature closely and realizes the highest ideal of “union of heaven and man”. On the other hand, vultures clean up every day for man and clear away the rotted corpses. This burial custom can protect the eco-environment on the Tibetan plateau, in fact.

Ancient Tibetans thought earth, water, fire and wind constituted the world. The world is material and material is changing. Man is material and is also changing. So, they connected man with nature by means of unconventional thinking and imaging and then choose a proper method: returning to land by earth burial; fusing man to fire by fire burial; combining man with water by water burial; mixing man to wind by heaven burial and the soul can also reach the ideal land of happiness.