Gesar Wang Chuan "dokan Tibetan Ethnic Identity,

The dissertation starts from the inquiry about the historicity of The Life of King Gesar. It regards the epic as a whole as the historical representation of the collective memory of the Tibetan ethnic group in mdo-Khams area, focusing on the way of the forming, maintaining and continuing of the ethnic identification through the historical narrative of the epic.The Introduction briefly reviews on the course from The Life of King Gesar first entering the Chinese academia to being an important component of the Chinese Epic Research system. It analyzes the influence of the notion of"epic"on the direction and the mainstream of the research on the epic of Gesar, focusing on the aim, the core issue and the methodology of the historical research area, as well as the dilemma it confronts. The issue consciousness of the dissertation comes from the review, which is, what does the historicity of the epic mean. The dissertation reevaluate the historicity of the epic, taking reference from the discussion on the issues of the relationship between history and truth, history and myth, history and collective memory and between historical representation and ethnic identification from the angles of history, sociology, anthropology and ethnology.The First Chapter makes clear the basic recognition of the dissertation on the nature of The Life of King Gesar And maintains that it is a historical representation made by the Tibetan ethnic group of mdo-Khams area. In order to elucidate the issue, the dissertation analyzes the meaning of"the Tibetan ethnic group of mdo-Khams area", illustrates the special relationship between the Gesar culture and the Tibetan ethnic group of mdo-Khams area, and explains why the epic could be regarded as a kind of historical representation.The Second and the Third Chapter analyzes the core meaning and basic characteristics of the social life of the Tibetan ethnic group of mdo-Khams area represented by the contents and plots of The Life of King Gesar, and takes them as the basis for the engendering and continuing of that ethnic group. The Second Chapter investigates into"the horse"and"the arrow". By way of analyzing the relating contents and the mode of narrative of the epic, the dissertation finds the meaning of the social life and the cultural ideas peculiar to the nomadic society on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau expressed by them. The Third Chapter inquires about the issues of religion and orality related to Gesar epic. It holds that The Life of King Gesar represents the inclusive and intermingled religious cultural in the folk society of mdo-Khams area. By analyzing the plots of the epic and its disseminating paths, it also views orality as the dominant cultural context in that society.The Fourth Chapter discusses on the construction of the boundaries of mdo-Khams Tibetans'ethnic identification. It analyzes how does them locate themselves in the space structure of"the Upper, the Middle and the Lower", how does them construct and maintain the differences between ethnic groups by way of transforming the Four-neighbors into Four-devils, and how does them show a world view that keep broadening by way of conjuring up numerous images of other ethnics.To sum up, from the analysis in the main part of the dissertation, one could find that the narrative of The Life of King Gesar represents and reinforces the core and basic characteristics of the Tibetan society of mdo-Khams area, which generates the recognition of the content and characters of the society. The emotional relationship and the feeling of belonging to the group are engendered from it. On the other hand, through the expression of their ideas on the space and the world geography as well as through the construction of the images of people from other ethnic groups, the epic draws a line between the self and the other. The process of eliminating the others is also the process of forming and reinforcing the self ethnic identification.The Conclusion part responds to the issue of the historicity of The Life of King Gesar. Laying the epic in the view of the historical research, the dissertation tries to probe into the issue of the nature of the history represented by the historical narrative of the epic. Instead of recording the influential political and military events, the historical narrative of The Life of King Gesar forms a"small"history about the total social life with a local view. Besides, The Life of King Gesar can also be regarded as mythistory. The usage of the notion does not mean the separation and reunite of myth and history as the concept has been used in the context of Western historical research, rather, it means that, to the Tibetan ethnic group of mdo-Khams area, the history, the myth, the truth and the present are intermingled, tangled and joint together. They are an inseparable whole originally.