The Emperor GeSaer(格萨尔王Gésàěrwáng) is a folk epic work that is popular in the residence area of the ethnic groups such as Zang, Meng, Naxi and so on in the Tibetan Plateau of Chine. It has been sung for a thousand years. By means of oral transmission, the epic narrates the glorious achievements of the hero Emperor GeSaer after he was befell in the world of man. Characterized by long history, magnificent structure and abundant contents, it is the crystallization(if you crystallize an opinion or idea, or if it crystallizes, it becomes fixed and definite in someone’s mind) of the nomadic(nomadic people travel from place to place rather than living in one place all the time) culture of the grassland.
Emperor GeSaer goes like this: long long ago, there were successive natural disasters and man-made calamity, and demons were rampant, all of which brought about misery to human beings. For the purpose of saving the mass, the Guanyin Bodhisattva who is renowned for her kindness pleaded to Buddha for sending a god to descend to the world to fight demons and save the people. The god is Emperor GeSaer. The author of the epic endowed him with special characters and distinguished talents and molded him into a half-man-and-half-god hero that is the combination of god, dragon and thought. After befalling in the world of man, Emperor GeSaer fought demons and got rid of a lot of monsters and did many good things for the people. He also repressed the evil strong powers and helped the weak. Finally, he united all the tribes. At last, Emperor GeSaer who had completed all the tasks commissioned by Buddha returned to heaven, together with his mother, wife, etc.
Emperor GeSaer is a heroic epic that was born and developed on the basis of the folk literature as ancient myths and legends, poems, proverbs, etc. of the Zang ethnics. It represents the highest achievement of the folk culture of the ancient Zang and Mongolian people and oral narrative art. The epic molds more than one hundred characters of vivid personality and outstanding images. The portrait to the heroes with Emperor GeSaer as the leader is especially glaring, thus, they become the eternal representatives in the literature history of the Zang ethnic group.
Emperor GeSaer is the epic with the longest length of singing discovered in the world so far. It has been transmitted in many ethnic groups. In addition, it has been spread outside China, such as part of Mongolia and Russia as well as the neighboring nations and areas of China, for example India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and so on.
