Multiple Authenticities of the Tibetan Gesar Epic

Authenticity in China's heritage regime is not simply a concern for those engaged in safeguarding in examining objects and texts, but is instead equally important to China's work with intangible cultural heritage as well. The Gesar epic, often touted as the longest epic in the world, was inscribed onto UNESCO's representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009 with an ambitious plan to spend millions of renminbi safeguarding the tradition.  With so much money at stake, there has been tremendous concern about putting resources into practices that are considered authentic. This has meant promoting certain material and verbal practices and particular tradition bearers, whilst also erasing over a number of others. Using data gathered during a 2018 research trip to Qinghai Province's Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture—an important centre for Gesar culture on the Tibetan Plateau—this paper will suggest that the approaches adopted by officials and scholars tasked with identifying, safeguarding, and managing the Gesar epic create a variety of competing authenticities. These multiple authenticities of genre, region, context, and performers have, in turn, have come to shape the present and the future of the epic itself in important ways.

Further questions may be directed to: t.thurston@leeds.ac.uk