Of Tibetan Biographical Literature Value And Its Evolution

This thesis highlights the importance of how various biographies of Tibetan scholars played an important part in forming and shaping the mainstream Tibetan culture. It explores the influence it had from the ancient traditions and how it brought together and formed today's Tibetan culture.It formulates the tremendous influence on shaping the guidelines on the general Tibetan thought process and customs.It simultaneously explains the important part that the Buddhist teachings played in the production of the various biographies and the irreplaceable part it played in the development evolution of the culture and customs in the Tibetan traditions. Many people viewed these biographies as a means to improve their religious studies, as these were the good and wise examples from Buddhist monks and nuns. They used the biographies as a guide and a measure to gain insight and wisdom. However, from the emerging discipline in literature studies-biographies not only disseminates religious ideas, it also gives you a detailed record of a person's words, deeds and mannerisms-in a way cataloguing the person's character, as well as the time and space he or she lived in-in other words, an historical record of that specific period.This aspect of the biography played an important part in the preserving of performing folk art-as clearly seen in the Tibetan opera where the story line is based on folklore and narrates the historical content of a period.The thesis has three chapters-the first focuses on the definition in literature of a biography, the production of a biography, the classification of a biography and the biography itself.The second chapter contains the characteristics of the biography in relation to other literature, the style and similarities and differences.The third chapter contains the influences of the biography on the religion, literature, history, folk traditions-in all, the complete shaping of the thoughts that makes up the Tibetan culture and traditions.