Constitutional Mythologies and Entangled Cultures in the Tibeto-MongolianGesarEpic: The Motif of Gesar's Celestial Descent

TheGesar/Geserepic cycle is a warrior epic known throughout the Tibetan and Mongolian-speaking regions of Asia and is still largely sustained through a shamanistically tinted oral tradition. This article focuses on the epic motif of the hero's divine descent and constructs both a “constitutiona...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of American folklore Vol. 129; no. 513; pp. 297 - 326
Main Author George Fitz Herbert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published University of Illinois Press 01.07.2016
Subjects
Bards
Buddhism
Children
Deities
Divinity
Heroism
Motifs
Mythology
Religious rituals
Sons
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Summary:TheGesar/Geserepic cycle is a warrior epic known throughout the Tibetan and Mongolian-speaking regions of Asia and is still largely sustained through a shamanistically tinted oral tradition. This article focuses on the epic motif of the hero's divine descent and constructs both a “constitutional mythology” for the epic based on this motif and a reconstruction of the probable archaic core of the epic motif. It also focuses in particular on the representations of the hero's sky-god father. The variability in the representation of this figure reflects the cross-cutting religious influences on this Silk Road epic. These range from archaic “native” Inner Asian traditions concerning sky and mountain gods, to Buddhism (and its debt to Indian Vedic religion) and even Silk Road Manichaeism.
ISSN:0021-8715
1535-1882
DOI:10.5406/jamerfolk.129.513.0297