Abstracts
Introduction to the Special Issue: Living Epics of China and Inner Asia (pp. 253-269)
John D. Niles
Documenting Living Oral Traditions: China's Institute of Ethnic Literature as Case Study (pp. 270-287)
Qubumo Bamo and Gejin Chao (with John D. Niles)
Abstract
The Institute of Ethnic Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is in the forefront of efforts to record, document, and analyze the living oral traditions of China's ethnic minorities, including works in the epic genre such as the three heroic epic cycles, namely the Gesar epic, the Janggar epic, and the Manas epic. In part, thanks to personal contacts between Chinese, North American, and European scholars, the Institute's current research initiatives are formulated in close interaction with theoretical models known in the West. Moreover, these initiatives are grounded in a threefold “archive/base/network” approach to the living oral traditions of China as vital elements of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
A Comparative Study of Performers of the Manas Epic (pp. 288-296)
Adil Jumaturdu
Abstract
For more than ten centuries, the culture of the Kyrgyz people has found chief expression through their oral traditions. The epic Manas, a prized form of Kyrgyz oral tradition, is still performed today in both Kyrgyzstan and the Xinjiang region of China. Research on the epic singers known as manaschys, or singers of Manas, is therefore of great significance. Manaschys are talented singers who can perform epic songs both artistically and creatively. Rather than memorizing a text, the manaschy (also spelled manaschï, manasqi, etc.) has the ability to produce new versions of epic songs through the art of composition in performance. This paper focuses on six representative manaschys of the twentieth century.
Constitutional Mythologies and Entangled Cultures in the Tibeto-Mongolian Gesar Epic: The Motif of Gesar's Celestial Descent (pp. 297-326)
George FitzHerbert
Abstract
The Gesar/Geser epic 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.
Oral Epics into the Twenty-First Century: The Case of the Kyrgyz EpicManas (pp. 327-344)
Karl Reichl
Abstract
The end of oral epics in Central Asia has been prophesied since the nineteenth century. With growing literacy in all parts of the world, oral traditions have become marginalized, and with the ever increasing pace of technical innovations, wide segments of the population have access to all kinds of entertainment, making the voice of the oral singer redundant, it would seem. Nevertheless, we can observe a surprising vitality of oral performance and oral traditions among the Kyrgyz. This paper discusses the transmission of the Kyrgyz epic tradition to the younger generation and the reasons why the epic of Manas plays such an important role for Kyrgyz cultural identity.
