Epic of King Gesar

The Epic of King Gesar (Tibetan: གླིང་གེ་སར།, Wylie: gling ge sar), also spelled Kesar (/ˈkɛzər, ˈkɛs-/) or Geser (especially in Mongolian contexts), is a traditional epic originating from Tibet and Central Asia. Folk balladeers continued to transmit the story orally, enriching its plot and embellished its language over time. The narrative reached its "final" form and peak popularity in the early 12th century.

The epic recounts the heroic deeds of the culture hero Gesar, the fearless lord of the legendary kingdom of Ling (Wylie: gling). It is preserved in both poetry and prose, primarily through oral poetic performance, and is widely sung across Central Asia and South Asia. Its classic version originates in central Tibet.

Approximately 100 bards of this epic (Wylie: sgrung, "tale") remain active today in the Gesar belt of China. Tibetan, Mongolian, Buryat, Balti, Ladakhi, and Monguor singers continue to uphold the oral tradition, and the epic has drawn significant scholarly interest as one of the few surviving oral epic traditions still performed as a living art. Versions of the epic among the Yugur and Salar peoples have also been recorded among the Balti of Baltistan, the Burusho people of Hunza and Gilgit, and the Kalmyk and Ladakhi people in Nepal, and various Altai, Turkic, and Tungus tribes. The first printed version was a Mongolian text published in Beijing in 1716.

There are numerous versions of the epic, each with many variants, and some sources regard it as the longest in the world. Although no single definitive text exists, the Chinese compilation of Tibetan versions has so far filled approximately 120 volumes, comprising more than one million verses divided into 29 “chapters.” Western estimates refer to more than 50 distinct editions published to date in China, India, and Tibet.