Download or read book The Many Faces of King Gesar written by Matthew T. Kapstein and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-01-31 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Tibetan Gesar epic has known countless retellings, translations, and academic studies. The Many Faces of Ling Gesar, presents its historical, cultural, and literary aspects for the first time in a single volume for both general readers and specialists.
Download or read book In the Forest of Faded Wisdom written by Gendun Chopel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-04-15 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a culture where poetry is considered the highest form of human language, Gendun Chopel is revered as Tibet’s greatest modern poet. Born in 1903 as British troops were preparing to invade his homeland, Gendun Chopel was identified at any early age as the incarnation of a famous lama and became a Buddhist monk, excelling in the debating courtyards of the great monasteries of Tibet. At the age of thirty-one, he gave up his monk’s vows and set off for India, where he would wander, often alone and impoverished, for over a decade. Returning to Tibet, he was arrested by the government of the young Dalai Lama on trumped-up charges of treason, emerging from prison three years later a broken man. He died in 1951 as troops of the People’s Liberation Army marched into Lhasa. Throughout his life, from his childhood to his time in prison, Gendun Chopel wrote poetry that conveyed the events of his remarkable life. In the Forest of Faded Wisdom is the first comprehensive collection of his oeuvre in any language, assembling poems in both the original Tibetan and in English translation. A master of many forms of Tibetan verse, Gendun Chopel composed heartfelt hymns to the Buddha, pithy instructions for the practice of the dharma, stirring tributes to the Tibetan warrior-kings, cynical reflections on the ways of the world, and laments of a wanderer, forgotten in a foreign land. These poems exhibit the technical skill—wordplay, puns, the ability to evoke moods of pathos and irony—for which Gendun Chopel was known and reveal the poet to be a consummate craftsman, skilled in both Tibetan and Indian poetics. With a directness and force often at odds with the conventions of belles lettres, this is a poetry that is at once elegant and earthy. In the Forest of Faded Wisdom is a remarkable introduction to Tibet’s sophisticated poetic tradition and its most intriguing twentieth-century writer.
Download or read book The Taming of the Demons written by and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A newly translated volume of the centuries-old spiritual epic of King Gesar. For centuries, the epic tale of Gesar of Ling has been told across Asia. This epic is a living oral tradition, performed widely by singers and bards and beloved especially in Tibet. Considered the longest single piece of literature in the world canon, the epic of Gesar chronicles the legend of King Gesar of Ling, a heroic figure known for his fearless leadership. The epic encompasses some 120 volumes and nearly 20 million words, and there are numerous versions across cultures. This book is the first English translation of the fourth volume of this sweeping literary work, with stories from after Gesar's coronation to the throne of Ling. This volume focuses on battles won and strategies applied, as the warrior-king Gesar fended off demons and liberated his foes. Though largely a violent account focused on his superhuman prowess in battle, this volume is rich with ethical proverbs that inform Tibetan culture to this day. A significant work of legend, the epic of Gesar is also a vital part of Tibetan Buddhism, as Gesar is said to have been chosen by celestial beings to restore order and destroy anti-Buddhist forces. The epic of Gesar is the cultural touchstone of Tibet, analogous to the Iliad or the Odyssey. While Book One covers Gesar's birth, youth, and rise to power, this volume recounts the martial victories and magical feats that made him a legendary figure to so many.
Download or read book Crossings on a Bridge of Light written by Douglas J. Penick and published by Hillcrest Publishing Group. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crossings On A Bridge of Light is the first English rendition of a vibrant and pivotal episode in the Gesar of Ling epic. In this story, Gesar, King of Ling, moves between life and death to free his mother from the bonds of hell. He traverses the six realms of being and passes through the five traditional states (bardos). His journey reaches its apex in four visions of the enlightened rulers of the Kingdom of Shambhala. Gesar's inner journey, his encounters with a panoply of beings embodying the spontaneous presence of the awakened state, enable him to heal the doubts and divisions that have come to threaten his kingdom. This tale of how the vision of an enlightened society can be realized on this earth has inspired people for many centuries; it is equally powerful today. The miraculous images of King Gesar dance so vividly on the pages of 'Crossings On A Bridge of Light' it's as if they were alive. It's beautiful! -The Ven. Tulku Thondup, translator of many important Nyingma texts, author of Healing Power of Mind, Boundless Healing, and Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth 'Crossings On A Bridge of Life' is a treasure, a work of true inspiration. It demonstrates that the tradition of Gesar and his significance is not lost, and that singers may appear in any land or time. In relating Gesar's quest to liberate his mother from hell, it vividly brings to life the Buddhist teachings on the six realms, the cycle of bardos, the pure lands of the five transcendent Buddhas, and the inseparability of existence and awakening. The poetry of its language deeply touches the heart with compassion and opens the mind to the ever-present reality of the awakened state. -Dr. Francesca Fremantle, translator (with Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche) of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and author of Luminous Emptiness
Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by Library of Congress and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 2002 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Eurasian Mythology in the Tibetan Epic of Ge sar written by Siegbert Hummel and published by Library of Tibetan Works & Archives. This book was released on 1998 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on Tibet and Tibetan Muslims, this book attempts to illustrate historical accounts of the Muslim community in Tibet.
Download or read book Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature written by Lama Jabb and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-06-10 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book-length study to appear in English on the literary, cultural and political roots of modern Tibetan literature. While existing scholarship on modern Tibetan writing takes the 1980s as its point of “birth” and presents this period as marking a “rupture” with traditional forms of literature, this book goes beyond such an interpretation by foregrounding instead the persistence of Tibet’s artistic past and oral traditions in the literary creativity of the present. While acknowledging the innovative features of modern Tibetan literary creation, it draws attention to the hitherto neglected aspects of continuity within the new. This study explores the endurance of genres, styles, concepts, techniques, symbolisms, and idioms derived from Tibet’s rich and diverse oral art forms and textual traditions. It reveals how Tibetan kāvya poetics, the mgur genre, life-writing, the Gesar epic and other modes of oral and literary compositions are referenced and adapted in novel ways within modern Tibetan poetry and fiction. It also brings to prominence the complex and fertile interplay between orality and the Tibetan literary text. Embracing a multidisciplinary approach drawing on theoretical insights in western literary theory and criticism, political studies, sociology, and anthropology, this research shows that, alongside literary and oral continuities, the Tibetan nation proves to be an inevitable attribute of modern Tibetan literature.
Download or read book The Epic of Gesar of Ling written by and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gesar of Ling epic is the Tibetan equivalent of The Arabian Nights. For hundreds of years, versions of it have been known in oral and written form in Tibet, China, Central Asia, and across the eastern Silk Route. King Gesar, renowned throughout these areas, represents the ideal warrior. As a leader with his people's loyalty and trust, he conquers all their enemies and protects the peace. His life story, which is full of miracles and magic, is an inspiration and a spiritual example to the people of Tibet and Central Asia even today; Gesar's warrior mask can be seen in the town square and on the door of homes in towns and villages throughout this area. As a Buddhist teaching story, the example of King Gesar is also understood as a spiritual allegory. The "enemies" in the stories represent the emotional and psychological challenges that turn people's minds toward greed, aggression, and envy, and away from the true teachings of Buddhism. These enemies graphically represent the different manifestations of the untamed mind. The teaching is that genuine warriors are not aggressive, but that they subjugate negative emotions in order to put the concerns of others before their own. The ideal of warriorship that Gesar represents is that of a person who, by facing personal challenges with gentleness and intelligence, can attain spiritual realization. This book contains volumes one through three, which tell of Gesar's birth, his mischievous childhood, his youth spent in exile, and his rivalry for the throne with his treacherous uncle. The Gesar epic tells how the king, an enlightened warrior, in order to defend Tibet and the Buddhist religion from the attacks of surrounding demon kings, conquers his enemies one by one in a series of adventures and campaigns that take him all over the Eastern world. He is assisted in his adventures by a cast of heroes and magical characters who include the major deities of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the native religion of Tibet. Gesar fulfills the Silk Route ideal of a king by being both a warrior and a magician. As a magician he combines the powers of an enlightened Buddhist master with those of a shamanic sorcerer. In fact, at times the epic almost seems like a manual to train such a Buddhist warrior-magician. In the story, the people and nation of Ling represent the East Asian notion of an enlightened society. There, meditation, magic, and the oral folk wisdom of a communal nomadic society are synchronized in a lifestyle harmonious with the environment, but ambitious for growth and learning and refined literate culture. Filled with magic, adventure, and the triumphs of this great warrior-king, the stories will delight all—young and old alike. The Gesar epic is still sung by bards in Tibet. The words of the Gesar epic have never been translated into a Western language before.
Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by Library of Congress and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 1676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hundred Thousand Songs written by Antoinette K. Gordon and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of Tibetan poetry and lyrics is accompanied by extensive commentary and offers a great insight into a rich literary culture. Tibet, remote and inaccessible, is less known to the western world for its literary than its artistic contributions to world culture. Nevertheless, it has produced a literature of enduring beauty and significance, the supreme achievement of which is the poetry of Milarepa, its greatest poet and saint. This Tibetan poetry book indicates in its poetic exaggeration that, to the Tibetans, his poetry contains all earthly and celestial wisdom. It is from this masterpiece that the selections for the present volume have been made—songs in which Milarepa describes his life in the solitude of mountain glaciers, his yogic attainments in self-discipline, his encounters with demons who try to obstruct his meditations, and his arrival at enlightenment and spiritual freedom. Presented here in skillful translation—in a volume decorated with original Tibetan woodcuts and motifs from Tibetan art—these poems shiningly reflect the genius of Tibet's "Old Man, Storehouse of Songs."
Download or read book Longing to Awaken written by Holly Gayley and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2024-08-19 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An indispensable collection of Buddhist devotional poems and songs Longing to Awaken features twenty-five translations of Buddhist devotional poems and songs composed by revered Tibetan masters from diverse traditions and time periods. The anthology invites readers to experience a variety of poetic forms that embody a range of emotions, from grief and longing to skepticism and humor, demonstrating the ways that poetry can inspire faith as well as reflect the profundity and at times fraught nature of the teacher-student relationship. This collection gives weight to literary—not simply literal—translation as a crucial endeavor in the transmission of Buddhism today, one with the potential to raise the profile of Tibetan poetry onto the stage of global literature. Featuring a remarkable interview with esteemed Tibetan master Jetsün Khandro Rinpoché to elucidate Buddhist devotion and a landmark essay by Lama Jabb articulating a Tibetan theory for translating poetry.
Download or read book Bardo written by Suzanne Paola and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suzanne Paola fuses the Tibetan bardo journey with Western epic tradition in ways that are both comic and harrowing. Bardo is the intermediate state after death when the soul wanders through the heavens and the hells while trying to avoid rebirth into samsara - the realm of the material - and reach nirvana. Paola presents a series of this life's bardo experiences: drug use, the refused birth of infertility, the social implications of the female body, even a trip to the fantastic "after-world" of pop culture.
Download or read book Sugata Saurabha An Epic Poem from Nepal on the Life of the Buddha by Chittadhar Hridaya written by Todd T. Lewis and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2009-11-19 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sugata Saurabha is an epic poem that retells the story of the Buddha's life. It was published in 1947 in the Nepalese language, Newari, by Chittadhar Hridaya, one of the greatest literary figures of 20th-century Nepal. The text is remarkable for its comprehensiveness, artistry, and nuance. It covers the Buddha's life from birth to death and conveys his basic teachings with simple clarity. It is also of interest because, where the classical sources are silent, Hridaya inserts details of personal life and cultural context that are Nepalese. The effect is to humanize the founder and add the texture of real life. A third point of interest is the modernist perspective that underlies the author's manner of retelling this great spiritual narrative. This rendering, in a long line of accounts of the Buddha's life dating back almost 2,000 years, may be the last ever to be produced that conforms to the traditions of Indic classic poetry. It will not only appeal to scholars of Buddhism but will find use in courses that introduce students to the life of the Buddha.
Download or read book Crossings on a Bridge of Light written by and published by . This book was released on 2003-11-01 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this epsode from the traditional Tibetan Epic about the adventures of Gesar King of Ling, Gesar must venture through all the relams of life and death to rescue his mother from the tortures of hell. The story is told in verse and prose.
Download or read book Tibetan Literature written by Wei Wu and published by 五洲传播出版社. This book was released on 2005 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Muses in Exile written by Bhuchung D. Sonam and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time, the voices of Tibet's diaspora find expression in an anthology of poetry composed in English:Muses in Exile.History teaches us that artistic and intellectual creativity reach their zenith under the most adverse conditions. And so it has been with Tibetan verse. Of the thirty writers published here, some have already died young. One at home in Tibet; others in Alaska,Toronto,New Delhi and in the mecca of thier exile - Dharamsala. However far-flung their lives, the longing for a homeland, the emigre's estrangement, is expressed here in unison to a variety of literary tunes. This collection is testimony to the anguish, rootlessness and unwavering destiny of a displaced people still mentally marching homeward acress the Himalayas.
Download or read book Songs of Spiritual Experience written by and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2000 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "... Newly translated works from all the traditions and schools of Tibeten Buddhism, spanning from the eleventh to the twentieth century."--Dust jacket.
