Different minority groups have different versions of the Gesar epic. Their respective forms differ from the Tibetan version in content, structure, characters, events, and actual performances. This kind of variety is common in Asian oral epic traditions. The Tu people are a unique minority who reside in northwest China with a total population of 200,000. The Gesar epic of this group is found mainly in Tu communities in Gansu and Qinghai provinces. The Tuzu Gesar is performed as a combination of verse and prose. It also shows some differences from the Anduo dialects of Tibetan. As a result of phonetic changes, the Tuzu Gesar has its own structure and follows strict procedures and performance rules. Many native scholars and experts have studied this tradition.Translated by Li Xianting

Guoming, Wang

Xianting, Li

University of Missouri: MOspace

The Tuzu Gesar Epic: Performance and SingersWang Guoming Translated by Li XiantingWang Yongfu performing the Tuzu Gesar. Photo by Wang Guoming.The Uniqueness of the Tuzu Gesar Different minority groups have different versions of the Gesar epic. Their respective forms differ from the Tibetan version in content, structure, characters, events, and actual performances. This kind of variety is common in Asian oral epic traditions. The Tu people are a unique minority  who reside in northwest China with a total population of 200,000. The Gesar epic of this group is found mainly in Tu communities in Gansu and Qinghai provinces. The Tuzu Gesar is performed as a combination of verse and prose. It also Oral Tradition, 25/2 (2010): 381-390shows some differences from the Anduo dialects of Tibetan. As a result of phonetic changes, the Tuzu Gesar has its own structure and follows strict procedures and performance rules. Many native scholars and experts have studied this tradition. For a long time, the Gesar epic performances have mixed stories, myths, proverbs, and quotations through the medium of prose and verse, as well as combinations of chanting and recitative. The Tu people have no written language, and more and more performers are passing away. Currently Wang Yongfu, who is 79 years old and lives in the Zhucha village, Tiantang town, in Tianzhu, is the only performer in China who can sing the entire Tuzu Gesar epic. The Combination of Verse and ProseBecause Tuzu is a spoken language with no written system, the Tuzu Gesar is unique in its pattern and content. When performed, the verse sections are sung in Tibetan, and there is no limit on the order of rhymes and lines. After the Tibetan exposition, the performer then interprets the epic in the Tu language. Instead of explaining the action literally, he adds ancient Tuzu cultural stories, uniting the bilingual presentation. To represent the linguistic makeup of this material, I have adopted the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to make a complete and scientific record of the Tuzu Gesar, and have translated the result to both the Tibetan and the Mandarin languages. As for the prose part, I have recorded the sounds in IPA and translated it word-for-word into Mandarin. This process preserved the materials in original and scientifically sound form. In this way, the Tuzu Gesar is presented as a multi-ethnic production with rich Tu 382 WANG GUOMINGcultural characteristics. It reflects the great influence of the Tibetan Gesar on other ethnicities, and foregrounds and clarifies its unique content and pattern. The Tuzu Gesar fully illustrates the Tu people’s creativity in dialogue with other ethnic cultures. How did the Tuzu Gesar develop its current performative pattern? There are two explanations. First, the Tu are a unique minority in northwest China. For centuries, they frequently communicated with other groups, including the Han, Tibetan, Hui, and Mongolian peoples. The Tu have been significantly influenced by other ethnic groups, and not only by  their languages but also, to varying extents, by their customs, religion, literatures, and arts—especially by Tibetans. Tuzu folk literature consists mainly of various special myths, legends, folktales, narratives, ballads, proverbs, and fables, all of which are depictions of Tu social history. These have been passed down through oral performance, and the Tuzu Gesar is the most representative of the overall cultural heritage. Second, when initially introduced into the Tu area, the Tuzu Gesar was much the same as the Tibetan version, with verse and prose portions performed in Tibetan. In most  cases, when an ethnic culture is introduced to other areas and peoples, it  is changed and transformed by the folk performers who adapt it to their daily life, basic concepts, social environment, and aesthetic needs. In this way the transformed cultural product is appreciated for generations. Tu epic performers have imported Gesar into a mother-tongue tradition. Keeping the original Tibetan verses, the performers also added native heroic stories and other content with Tu cultural characteristics. Under such circumstances, the Tuzu Gesar circulated throughout the Tu area, and a Gesar version with unique characteristics developed and was passed down to the current era with its integrity and originality intact. Even though the long tradition of Gesar has maintained its original prose elements since the beginning, after generations of performance the Tibetan vocabulary has been simplified and modernized. The remaining Tibetan words have sometimes been transformed by the Tu language, and sometimes have retained the ancient pronunciations or even original words. These Tibetan words are similar to the Tu language in their phonetic pronunciation.The Practice of Sacred PerformanceThe Tuzu Gesar is performed according to a strict procedure and within a unique pattern. My father, Gengdeng Shijia (Wang Yongfu), is the only  living individual who can perform the complete version of the Tuzu Gesar. He has observed that “the procedure and performance pattern date back to ancient times, and if performers do not follow this procedure or pattern they will offend the deities and King Gesar, and they will also feel guilty and be punished due to Karma.” Several days before the event, the performer will usually go to a valley  several miles away in order to get water from between six and nine springs, and also cut some twigs from the top of a cypress tree to worship Gesar and other gods. In addition, he cleans the performing place and burns the twigs to purify the site. Then the performer puts on special clothing, burns incense along with the cypress twigs, lights Buddha lamps, offers the pure water he has collected, and recites prayer scriptures. Then, sprinkling wine and water, he worships three levels of gods: the higher “King Heaven,” the middle “Treasure,” and the lower “Dragon,” as well as of all the  THE TUZU GESAR EPIC: PERFORMANCE AND SINGERS 383mountain and family gods. It is believed that  if the performer follows these procedures the people will not suffer any illness or disaster, and that they will also enjoy good harvests for the entire year. After all of these steps are complete, he begins his performance. Near ExtinctionMany Tuzu epic performers of great achievement  have passed away in recent decades. The only one left is Wang Yongfu (Gengdeng Shijia), who is 79 years old and has been ill for some time. Thus the need to study and to protect the Tuzu Gesar epic as performed by him is extremely urgent. With the development of science and technology, as well as the evolution of the market economy, people’s cultural life has become more varied and more complex. Many have lost interest in the Tuzu Gesar, and this change has had a negative impact on epic performance. Now it  is difficult to transmit the Tuzu Gesar, which is on the verge of dying out. Maxim Gorky  valued highly  the role of folk performers in developing and promoting the arts (Suonan 2005). He highlighted the importance of protecting ethnic culture, and argued that losing a folk performer was like losing a library. Lu Xun, a famous Chinese writer, considered 384 WANG GUOMINGThe Discovery and Protection of the Tuzu Gesar. Video by the Northwestern University for Nationalities. http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/25ii/guoming#myGallery-picture(3)folk artists to be “non-literate writers,” and praised their contributions to cultural history. Therefore, if the government does not take effective measures to protect Gesar, an important manifestation of human oral and intangible heritage will be forever lost in our lifetime and we will be responsible for that loss.The Epic Performer: Wang YongfuBefore 1990 there were some four performers of the Tuzu Gesar. Today, Wang Yongfu, from the Tianzhu region, is the only one still living. Here is his story. One August morning in 1930, a baby was born in a crude cave dwelling to a family who had performed the Tuzu Gesar for at least five generations. This baby grew up to become the famous performer Wang Yongfu, whose Tibetan name is Gengdeng Shijia. From childhood, he was clever and had an excellent memory. Under his father’s instruction, he acquired the skills for performing the epic when he was a teenager. The table below provides detailed information on the genealogy  of his family. (I have recorded this material according to Wang Yongfu’s memory because the family record was lost. We are currently  conducting research on the accuracy of the facts provided for the first generation.)Generation Name Gender Birth date Literacy Transmission patternPerforming era Home regionFirst HuoerJiamayaMale Unknown Illiterate Within family Unknown Huzu county, Qinghai Second Sangou AcairangMale Unknown Illiterate Within family Unknown Huzu county, QinghaiThird Lin Qiaheilo-ngjiangMale Unknown Illiterate Within family Unknown Huzu county, QinghaiFourth Yang Zeng Male 1912 Illiterate Father-in-law to son-in-lawAfter 1927 Tiantang town, Tianzhu Fifth Wang Yongfu Male 1930 Illiterate Father to son After 1942Zhuca village, Tiantang town, Tianzhu Wang Yongfu has earned high praise for his performances. He won an honorary certificate from the National Administrative Panel in November of 1991, and was chosen as a Paragon Individual for his contribution in protecting Gesar. In 1996 he was invited to attend the Fourth International Academic Conference. In June 1997 he was commended by the National Ministry of Culture, the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, the National Literary  Union, and the National Academy of Social Science, who jointly conferred the title of Paragon Individual with Remarkable Contributions. In September 2006 he was listed as one of the First  Group of Representative Inheritors of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage.  THE TUZU GESAR EPIC: PERFORMANCE AND SINGERS 385Cultural Context, Structure, and ContentWang Yongfu praying before his performance. Photo by Wang Guoming.The Tuzu Gesar is similar to the Tibetan version only in its characters and general plot; it is different in content, structure, events, and the story  as a whole. From its very beginning, the Tuzu Gesar is dependent on the folk custom of the Tu people, and reflects many aspects of the Tu people’s daily life. It  consists of an unusual mixture of creation epic, mythology stories, and heroic epic, an uncommon combination in other traditions. The two completed studies of Gesar demonstrate that the epic has a rich content, covering topics as diverse as the original universal chaos, human emergence, the origin of various species, raising domestic animals, and cultural development from primitive tribes to modern nationalities. It also recounts the biography of Gesar, who is transformed from a god into a human being, and then from an ordinary person into the tribal chief. He teaches his people to be self-reliant instead of trusting in the gods, and to develop agriculture and livestock to enrich their lives. The epic also includes information about food, living, clothes, and customs, as well as about agriculture, politics, military matters, and religion. The hero and gods from the Tuzu Gesar are half human and half divine, and we can observe that the epic illustrates a transition from the “mythological age” to the “heroic age.” Its diverse content touches on language, religion, folk culture, mythology, history, geography, politics, and economics, as well as agricultural and handicraft-related topics. 386 WANG GUOMINGThe first part  of the Tuzu Gesar is known as the Creation Epic, which has an independent conceptual system. It exists, for example, in the collection by Shi Luode, Alangbu Creation History, as discovered by  Wang Xingxian, and in the Tuzu Gesar as performed by Wang Yongfu. The creation epic illustrates the living conditions and practices of the primeval people, such as collecting wild fruit, hunting, cave-dwelling, and dressing themselves in clothes made from animal skins and tree bark. Wang Yongfu tells a creation tale that is more detailed, more real, and more magnificent. His Creation Epic demonstrates to us a Tuzu Gesar that is unusual and more fully  nuanced, showing us how the universe developed, how human beings were created, and how the different species arose. This part is a prelude to the following section, but is also in its own right of great significance in the Tuzu Gesar: it provides a comprehensive summary of the Tu people’s original concepts of the universe, human beings, religion, language, and origins. The second part of the Tuzu Gesar is called the Heroic Epic, and it tells the origin of Alang tribe, the power struggle among tribal members, and wars against other tribes. The elder chief (Khan) Alang Qiagan wants to abdicate and to choose a successor. But the evil Agu Jiadang usurps the throne by bribing the diviner. Agu Jiadang is weak, depletes his people’s resources, and puts the Alang tribe at war for years. Under such circumstances, the elder Khan goes to heaven and beseeches the bottom-level Dragon God to let the god’s third son be born into the Alang tribe. That son later becomes Gesar; he is the hero sent to the earth by the gods. From the time of his birth he is persecuted by  his uncle, but the smart young Gesar outwits Agu Jiadang many times. Finally the young man overthrows his uncle, conquers some nearby  tribes, and restores relationships with them; as a result the people of Alang have a peaceful and happy life. The second part of the Tuzu Gesar is similar to the Tibetan and Mongolian versions, with additional Tu cultural content.The Study and Protection of the Tuzu GesarFor a long time, people have valued the Tibetan and Mongolian versions of Gesar, and researchers initiated the preservation, collection, and edition of these versions quite early on. However, since people knew little about the transmission of the Tuzu Gesar, they have not done a great deal so far to protect, collect, and edit it. There are two principal explanations for this situation. The first is geographical and demographic. The Tu people live mainly in the areas with minority communities (Huzhu Tuzu Autonomous County, Minhe Huizu and Tuzu Autonomous County, and Datong Huizu and Tuzu Autonomous County  of Qinghai Province; Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County  and Yongdeng County of Gansu Province). The Tu people are a small population of fewer than two hundred thousand, and they have a poor economy. Second, the lack of a written language historically  frustrated developments in their politics, economy, and culture, and made communications with other ethnic groups difficult. Therefore, Tu traditional culture was not preserved well, and researchers did not pay  much attention to the preservation and edition of the Tuzu Gesar.  THE TUZU GESAR EPIC: PERFORMANCE AND SINGERS 387Wang Yongfu speaking with his son, Wang Guoming. Photo by Li Wei.Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council have issued several documents, stating that “the edition of ancient books, inheriting the precious cultural heritage of our homeland, is a significant task in regard to our posterity.” This statement placed the edition of ancient minority works on the government’s agenda.Scholarly research on Tuzu Gesar has advanced in three stages: discovery, edition, and research. The first stage (1948-85) was the period when foreign scholars discovered the “Akelong Gesar” for the first time. Dominic Shlode from the former West Germany was the first scholar  to discover, edit, and publish this tradition. The second stage (1985-2005) witnessed domestic scholars beginning to collect, edit, and publish the Tuzu Gesar. They  made tremendous efforts to explore the oral epic performed by the inheritors of the tradition. As a result they were able to save this outstanding historical cultural heritage and publish their achievements. People began to pay attention to the epic’s historical and cultural value, and the Tuzu Gesar was gradually accepted by  the Gesar study group and by scholars in other social science fields. This was significant for future edition, exploration, and research on the Tuzu Gesar. The main scholastic achievements of the second stage are as follows:1. The survey conducted by the researcher Yang Enhong (June 25-July 3, 1986)2. The experience of “seeking the treasure” by the researcher Wang Xingxian and his important contribution (September 6, 1986)388 WANG GUOMING3. The collection and edition of the Tuzu Gesar by  Wang Guoming, son of Wang Yongfu (from 1994 to the present)The third stage began in 2006, when the Tuzu Gesar was placed among the first group of the national intangible cultural heritage. With the further development of reform and opening up in China, more efforts were made by the government to explore, collect, and save the cultural heritage of all minorities. The State Council promulgated “Instructions on Strengthening the Preservation of Works of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage” for effective protection in 2005, and in 2006 published a name-list of the first group of the national intangible cultural heritage, which included 518 items in total. The confirmation of the Tuzu Gesar in that name-list has far-reaching significance, even though the relevant work has just  started. The tradition has gained national respect for its historical and cultural position. Its immense research value in the areas of history, culture, religion, and art  is acknowledged, and it is also unique in the overall research area of Gesar. Including the Tuzu Gesar on the list means that  it will be fully explored with national support and that research achievements will be published as a series.Gesar Research InstituteNorthwest University for NationalitiesReferences[All original citations in Chinese]Office 2003 Office of the National Administrative Team of Gesar Affairs. Studies on Gesar, 6 vols. Lanzhou: Gansu National Press. Schlode 1994 Domenik Schlode, ed. The Tuzu Gesar. Trans. by Li Keyu. Xining, Qinghai: People’s Press.Suonan 2005 Suonan Zhuoma. Oral Performers: Carriers of the Tuzu Gesar Epic: Tibetans in Qinghai. Vol. I.Wang 2002 Wang Xingxian. Key Arguments on Gesar. Lanzhou: Gansu National Press.Wang and Wang 1996 Wang Xingxian and Wang Guoming, Tuzu Gesar. Gesar Library, 3.1. Lanzhou: Gansu National Press. Wang and Wang 2000 ______. Tuzu Gesar. Gesar Library, vol. 3.2. Lanzhou: Gansu National Press.Zhao 1998 Zhao Bingli. An Anthology of Gesar Studies, 5 vols. Lanzhou: Gansu National Press. THE TUZU GESAR EPIC: PERFORMANCE AND SINGERS 389Zhaxi and Wang 2002 Zhaxi Dongzhu and Wang Xingxian. A Historical Sketch of Gesar Studies. Lanzhou: Gansu National Press. 390 WANG GUOMING

The Tuzu Gesar epic : Performance and singers

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The Tuzu Gesar epic : Performance and singers

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