King Gesar is an ancient epic orally passed down through generations of Tibetan people.

Over the centuries some ballad singers also made drawings to illustrate the contents of the story, and these became the earliest form of tangka painting about the legendary hero.

The tangka have become treasures for people to worship King Gesar at home.

Recently, scholars from the China Tibetology Research Institute in Beijing and other academies in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province carried out a study on 11 precious ancient tangka about King Gesar.

The paintings, now kept at the Sichuan Provincial Museum in Chengdu, offer vivid portrayals of the heroic Tibetan sage and savior, King Gesar.

Each of the tangka paintings is 83.5 cm high and 59 cm wide and depicts several life stories of Gesar in an elegant style. As a result of scholarly analysis, the paintings are now listed as state-class cultural relics under national protection.

Apart from their artistic accomplishment, what makes the 11 tangka most special is that each work carries a caption written in Tibetan language. The best known tangka paintings in the world, in a collection of the Guimet Museum in Paris, do not have Tibetan captions.

The captions serve as guides to how the tangka are related to the rich social, cultural and religious legacy the legendary king left for the Tibetans, a legacy that for so long has been believed to exist only in the oral literature of the wandering Tibetan folk balladeers and narrators.

Gesar as a child

Like all sages in world mythology, King Gesar was born into a royal family -- the Dragon King Zouna Renqen, as the tangka entitled "Langman Gyimo" conveys.

This tangka contains clusters of smaller paintings that actually unfold the centuries-old mysteries with regard to the birth of King Gesar.

For three generations the royal Tibetan King and his family of the Senglun Tribe resided in Senglun Palace, which was decorated with an array of religious objects, sutra streamers, arrows and spears.

Gesar's arrival on earth was preceded by his aunt, who rode a yellow sheep to descend from heaven. He nestled in the bosom of his mother, and was so strong that he killed an enemy on the day of his birth. On the following day he killed a demon and shot dead an argali incarnated from a demon.

By the third day after his birth Gesar was already as big as a normal 3-year-old boy. He killed a spell chanter on the sixth day.

As he grew a little bigger, he went with his mother in a chariot to the bank of the Yellow River, where they lived in exile on wild vegetables and tail-less rats. The grassland, named Mamai Banlung Sumdog, was home to deer, sheep and tigers. Gesar and his mother attracted many pilgrims of the Tibetan and Han people.

When a snowstorm hit the neighboring state of Ling, the Ling people invited Gesar and his mother to help them tide over the calamity.

A life of hardship followed, as young Gesar acquired skills and perseverance, and a kind and brave heart.

When he was between five and seven, in the painting entitled "Shinga Dongqen Garbo," Gesar donned a white robe and a white felt hat and started to give lectures to local people. He also distributed yaks, crystals and qingke barley among the populace. Throughout, he enjoyed full protection of the Dragon Maid, who killed a wild bull incarnated from a demon.

At nine years of age, as depicted in "Nyainqen Dorje Bawache" Gesar was rising quickly to become a young king of the Ling state. He distributed sheep among the people in Nyipolho and had a palace built by dint of his magical powers while lecturing in front of the hall. By then, Gesar was able to turn himself into a bird to make a prediction while sitting on a roof.

At the ages between 10 and 12, in the paintings "Tsang Yamshiong Mapo," "Dragon King Zouna Renqen" and "King Gesar," young Gesar became more resolute and was in command of his generals and troops. His palaces expanded and he built a hall to house 1,000 Buddhas.

Gesar wore a battle helmet adorned with feathers in the shape of an umbrella and planted with four small banners. He carried a spear in his right hand and his left hand cupped his jaw in contemplation. He sat on his horse sideways, and the horse gazed at drifting clouds as if ready to gallop.

Gesar also tried to learn about the surrounding of the palace's warehouse by disguising himself as a lame old lady carrying a blind woman on his back.

Battle scenes

Five of the 11 paintings focus on the Battle Between Hor and Ling, one of the most important chapters in all folk Tibetan ballads about King Gesar.

Details depicting the battle scenes are numerous and the protagonists include warriors, generals, deities and beasts.

Whoever they are, they are in strategic meetings or in fierce battles. Gesar travelled widely with his troops, or on his own, even as far as to the north to fetch shields, to Mount Wutai, one of the major Buddhist shrines in the Han people populated area, where he got tea.

After many trials and tribulations, Gesar accomplished his mission on earth and returned to heaven.

On each of the paintings about the life of the young Gesar, Tibetan Buddhism remains a recurring theme, whether symbolized by the lamas of the Nyingma Sect who continue from one generation to the next, or the five Buddhas with the Oriental Buddha in the middle and with the Sumeru Mountain to the right to symbolize Buddhist paradise.

According to Wang Jiayou, researcher with the Sichuan museum, the paintings were created during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). However, Wang Pingzhen, specialist in tangka paintings, dates them to the following Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Despite the debate, the scholars agree that the 11 Gesar tangka works are of a high academic value.

These works were once in possession of the one-time Huaxi Border Study Institute in Sichuan and of Liu Wenhui (1895-1976), who was arguably the most powerful man in Southwest China before 1949.

Liu later headed the Ministry of Forestry after New China was founded.

(China Daily December 9, 2003)