Editor's note: Currently Yang Enhong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, took an interview of China Tibet Online. Having been working in Nagqu Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region for 12 years, Yang is famous for her achievements in Tibetan literature. Loving Tibetan culture as well as Tibetan people, she made friends with many folk artists and writers.

China Tibet Online: Now the Tibetan epic King Gesar has been brought to the stage as a dance drama (created by Chengdu Military Area Command, the drama Hero Gesar was performed at Southwest Theater in Chengdu, Sichuan province, from Dec. 28 to 30). However, King Gesar performers of old typically performed alone on simple raised platforms. What influence do you think about the traditional Gesar, positive or negative?

King Gesar performers [Photo/Xinhua]

Yang Enhong: Traditionally, the Gesar is inherited by brain memory and the elder Gesar singers ... But now the traditional style is shrinking. When I worked in Tibet in 1980s, many traditional Gesar singing artists were still alive and now most of them have passed away.  However, the Tibetan people are still in great demand of the Gesar stories. So in the new era, seeking new ways to meet the demand of the local people is not a bad way as that benefits the people's cultural life.

Yang Enhong, researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences [Photo/China Tibet Online]

On the other hand, in the sense of protecting the intangible culture heritage, we are trying our best to protect and conserve the singing art in its original way. 

Background: King Gesar, the world's longest epic, is a symbol of Tibetan culture and is on the list of China's national intangible cultural heritage.

Western epic poems like the Iliad and the Odyssey were finished in ancient times, but the Epic of King Gesar is still very much alive.

The epic poem from Tibet is a piece of intangible cultural heritage that the regional government has been trying hard to preserve.

The story's 1 million lines are now repeated by the region's 116 King Gesar storytellers every day as part of a government initiative to encourage the performance and preservation of the epic tale.

The Epic of King Gesar is sometimes referred to as an "Eastern Homer," referring to the famed epic poet from Greece. The tale is composed of many smaller stories of kings fighting demons and helping their weaker subjugates. The poem is one of the world's only living epic poems, as it continues to be written and changed by those who perform it.