Photo shows the image of King Gesar. [Photo/Cultural China]

King Gesar is a folk epic work that is popular in the residence area of the ethnic groups such as Tibetan, Mongolian, Naxi and on the Tibetan Plateau of China. It has been sung for a thousand years.

By means of oral transmission, the epic narrates the glorious achievements of the hero King Gesar after he was befell in the world of man. Characterized by long history, magnificent structure and abundant contents, it is the crystallization of the nomadic culture of the grassland.

King Gesar goes like this long long ago, there were successive natural disasters and man-made calamity, and demons were rampant, all of which brought about misery to human beings. For the purpose of saving the mass, the Guanyin Bodhisattva who is renowned for her kindness pleaded to Buddha for sending a god to descend to the world to fight demons and save the people.

Photo shows the image of King Gesar. [Photo/Cultural China]

The god is King Gesar. The author of the epic endowed him with special characters and distinguished talents and molded him into a half-man-and-half-god hero that is the combination of god, dragon and thought. After befalling in the world of man, King Gesar fought demons and got rid of a lot of monsters and did many good things for the people.

He also repressed the evil strong powers and helped the weak. Finally, he united all the tribes. At last, King Gesar who had completed all the tasks commissioned by Buddha returned to heaven, together with his mother, wife, etc. 

(Sources from the Cultural China and edited by Mirenda Wu)