The power of genres and the project of secularisation: publishing the Gesar epic in contemporary China

Abstract

This article examines how published episodes from the life of Gesar—a king described in Tibetan epics—are assigned literary classifications inside and outside China. Outside of China, Tibetan publishers categorise these narratives using the explicitly Buddhist terms ‘tale of liberation’ (rnam thar) and ‘expression of realisation’ (rtogs brjod). By contrast, state-invested publishers within China designate these narratives as ‘story’ (sgrung). Although this agenda is never stated explicitly, categorising narratives from Tibetan tradition as ‘stories’ rather than Buddhist genres serves the Chinese state’s goals of constructing a ‘secular’ Tibetan culture removed from the traditional authority of Buddhist institutions. Secularising the Gesar epic helps to produce a Tibetan citizen prepared to participate in and cede authority to China’s multi-ethnic nation state, while also relegating Buddhism to a personal, private, and apolitical phenomenon. This case study has larger implications for analysing genre as a site where ideas of religion and secularity are negotiated.

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