Ani, a 54-year-old Tibetan artist, sits amongst a group of herdsmen chatting. It’s hard to believe that a man of such undistinguished appearance could be a “national treasure”. Ani is a folk singing artist for the world’s longest epic, “King Gesar”.

In Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province, birthplace of King Gesar, there are three best narrators of "King Gesar". As one of the three, Ani is from Derge County and has already been narrating for 39 years.

The first meeting with Ani was on the Axu Grasslands. A new statue of King Gesar was completed, so Ani came there to narrate the epic for the worshipping Tibetan farmers and herdsmen. He was wearing traditional Tibetan clothes and riding boots, with ruby red face full of wrinkles.

Ani said, “I have never come to school. I was herding cattle on the mountains when I was 13 years old. Some day I dreamed of King Gesar and it was him that allowed me narrate the great epic.”

His wife has already passed away, but he and his wife along with another 70-year-old artist spent seven months recording the first three sections of “King Gesar”.

Ani says he doesn’t drink, smoke or eat chili. He has come to China's Tibet and Qinghai as well as countries such as India and Nepal for ritual walk. He lives nearby the Derge Printing House, which is one of the three major printing houses in Tibetan-inhabited areas. For 24 years he has been waking up at 4.30 am to read “King Gesar” for half an hour and then walk around the printing house. He spends four hours doing 110 laps, making the combined total distance more than 200,000 kilometers.

Ani can already narrate over 30 versions of “King Gesar”. He differs from those illiterate artists in that he can read the epic. In addition, most artists can only narrate in two to three different tones, but he can make 30.

Ani was born in a farm on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and has two sons and a daughter. He is now pinning his hopes on his 12-year-old granddaughter, Tsering Chodron. She once played King Gesar’s concubine, Drumo, in a Tibetan opera performance in the county. 

 “King Gesar” is currently the world’s longest living epic. It is known as the “Oriental Iliad” and Chinese experts have already collected more than 140 different versions with around 15 million words. China currently has more than 100 Gesar narrators, of which more than 90 are Tibetan and around 40 Mongolian and Tu artists.