"king Gesar" Dress Culture Study

The Biography of King Gesar is considered as a great epic in Tibetan's history which represents the highest achievement of Tibetan ancient folk culture. It is also an encyclopedia with high academic and aesthetic value of researching the Tibetan's ancient society, history, and culture.Clothing can reflect the history. From the clothes, we can see different times and countries, various nationalities'living environment, production methods, the local customs, aesthetic, ranks,ethics and social roles,and religious beliefs and cultural exchange between different nationalities.It is the crystallization of material and spiritual civilization of human being. Meanwhile, it is an ideology of social members' common psychological emotion and spiritual essence of ethnic culture.The description of the costume in The Biography of King Gesar provides us precious material and reference to recognize and research the ancient Tibetan costume.The research of costume in The Biography of King Gesar not only can help us to know the ancient Tibetan society, but also assist us to understand the formation, development and several important historical stages of The Biography of King Gesar.This thesis from the view of folklore and cultural study combines the research way of documentary to classify the costume in The Biography of King Gesar, describes and analyses the typical costume. On the basis of classification, this paper sums up the five elements from clothing itself which are qualitative, shape, decoration, color, draw, and interprets the cultural connotation of the costume.Finally this paper probes into the function and value in The Biography of King Gesar and the connection with today's costume in Tibetan inhabited areas.