The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling [Paperback]

I originally became acquainted with Gesar in the 1960s through a rather dingy-looking rebound library copy of the 1934 edition, and was delighted to find it, years later, in a crisp-looking paperback reprint, with a new foreword, but otherwise unchanged.

For those not interested in problems of Tibetan history, and the mutual adaptations of Tibetan civilization and Buddhism, the story is more than worth reading as an heroic romance. (Which is how I originally came to it, along with Cuchulain, Finn, and pre-Malory versions of Arthur and Lancelot). There have been some other books on Gesar published in recent years, some including interesting additional material, but the other popular retellings seem at least partly dependant on the doubly-translated David-Neel prose version of his stories. (Which were actually told in verse, and can reasonably be described as a series of epics.)

That there is no comparable one-volume version in English is not surprising. There is in fact no complete "canonical" version in Tibetan to translate; instead, many tellings of episodes and sequences of episodes have been recovered, in written or oral form. David-Neel and her Tibetan associates came up with a reasonably connected story. Until a qualified student of Tibetan language and literature produces a representative selection of these texts in English of manageable length, the David-Neel version will have to satisfy the curiosity of the rest of us. (What may be the third volume of the major "Library of Tibet" Gesar translation project, directed by Robin Kornman, was in fact scheduled for publication in January 2004; there are also tantalizing reports of Kornman's projected 800-page version of the Gesar story for Penguin, which as a single volume would be a good replacement for David-Neel.)

Fortunately, the version available is highly enjoyable. It offers the reader a self-consciously Buddhist treatment of the story of a military hero, a fighter and conqueror who is presented as an incarnate defender of the Dharma, and Tibet, against a variety of essentially demonic enemies. In this way, the ethos of the old Tibetan royal and noble dynasties is adjusted to the ideology of Mahayana Buddhism, and the traditions of the Vajrayana schools which prevailed in Tibet.

Gesar's story, in this account, is set motion by Padmasambhava, the "Lotus-Born Sage" and "Precious Guru" who is regarded the "Apostle of Tibet," and one of its supernatural guardians. This wonder-working Bodhisattva recognizes that the time has come to beget a mighty hero, to oppose a previously vanquished demon, now triply-incarnated in human forms, and sets about the accomplishment of this goal. (Yes, it *does* sound a bit like Joss Whedon's original version of the Chosen One and her Watcher, reborn through the ages to defend humanity!) It is not merely an ordinary biography, therefore, but covers the hero's previous existence as a higher being, and the circumstances of his conception and birth, as seen from an essentially divine point of view.

Whether you are looking for entertainment or edification, the open-minded reader should find it worthwhile.

Despite David-Neel's association with Madame Bolovsky's "Theosophical Society" this book still retains a great deal of credibility. The introduction details an encounter she had with an emissary of Gesar Ling which seems to be derived directly from his reputation as the regional protector deity of the Dege region of Tibet.

Her easy writing style makes this book accessible to the academic and the casual reader. I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone interested in the more obscure writings on Tibet.