Tibetan literature generally refers to literature written in theTibetan language or arising out of Tibetan culture. Historically, Tibetan has served as a trans-regional literary language that has been used, at different times, from Tibet to Mongolia, Russia, and present-day Bhutan, Nepal, India, and Pakistan. Today, the term Tibetan literature can also be applied to any work by an ethnic Tibetan person or arising out of Tibetan folk culture; contemporary Tibetan writers sometimes useChinese,English, or other languages to compose their work.
Today, the term "Tibetan literature" can also be applied to any work by an ethnic Tibetan person. However, who is a "Tibetan" and who speaks "the Tibetan language" are contested. For instance, Chinese ethnologists have argued that theBaima language is independent from Tibetan, however, the state classifies them as Tibetans for fear of being seen as attacking the unity of Tibetan identity. Similarly, theTibetan languages are in factmutually unintelligible, which has created difficulty in education, where Chinese authorities impose for exampleLhasa Tibetan onAmdo Tibetan speakers, because they are both considered part of the same language for political reasons.[1]
The Tibetan script was developed from an Indic script in the 7th century during the Tibetan Imperial period. Literature in the Tibetan language received its first impetus in the 8th century with the establishment of the monastic universitySamye for the purpose of the translation of the voluminous Buddhist texts fromSanskrit into the vernacular. The Tibetan absorption of Buddhist thought allowed for the penetration of Chinese as well as Indian styles, through representations of theArhat.[2] In their final form, established in the 14th and 17th centuries respectively, these texts comprise the 108-volumeKangyur, and its 224-volume commentary, theTengyur. Because of the destruction of the monastic universities of India by the Delhi Sultanate, the Tibetan versions of some works are the only extant ones. Around 950, a secret library was created in theMogao Caves near the oasis ofDunhuang to protect Buddhist scriptures, and it is by this means that we possess many of the oldest versions of some Tibetan, Chinese and Uighur texts.
Throughout most of Tibetan history, its literary works have been strongly influenced byBuddhist thought: they are mostly religious, historical, and biographical texts, or a mixture of these genres. There are also collections of folktales (for example, those involving thetrickster figureAkhu Tönpa), and works dealing with the ancientBön religion, which preceded Tibetan Buddhism. Particularly well known in the West are theTibetan Book of the Dead, translated into English in 1927, the 120-volumeEpic of King Gesar, one of the few living epics, andThe Tale of the Incomparable Prince by Tshe-rin-dban-rgyal (1697–1763), translated into English in 1996. The Gesar epic in particular is the key subject of study by the Chinese state, and was revived with the end of the clergy's monopoly on political power, since theGelugpa monasteries forbade theepic literary genre.[3]
After 1949, whenChina took power in Tibet, access to secular education was greatly expanded. As a result, Tibetan literature has now covered more diverse, non-monastic topics includingsocial commentary.[3] In 1980, the Tibet Autonomous Region Writers Association (TARWA) started the first Tibetan-language literature journal,Tibetan Literature and Art (Bod kyi rtsom rig sgyu rtsal), which published short stories about historicalserfdom in Tibet.[1] The most popular Tibetophone literary magazine inQinghai, "Light Rain" (Drang Char), was founded in 1981, popularizing theshort story genre in Tibet.[3][4] After 1985, Tibetan journals also criticized theGang of Four and the excesses of theCultural Revolution, and were less bound by the constraints ofpolitical correctness. The influence of Chinese poetry, and of Western poetry in Chinese translation, began to make itself felt after theFour Modernizations. Despite these influences, critics and editors gave priority to stories and poems with traditional settings. Most new work takes the form of poetry.
The most influential Tibetan writers come from Qinghai rather than Tibet; these "Amdowa" writers includeDhondup Gyal andGendün Chöphel, whose works were characteristic ofmodernism. Their works are featured in Tibetan-language textbooks used in the "Five Provinces" as part of China's unified education policy for all Tibetan-speaking areas of China. According to the exile historianTsering Shakya, despite state monitoring, "Tibetan writers, intellectuals, and artists have been able through fiction to conduct an autonomous debate on the nature of Tibetan identity".[1]
Modern Tibetan literature is influenced by the trends ofChinese literature as a whole because of intranational translation from Chinese into Tibetan; Tibetan-language literature is also translated into Chinese, but to a far lesser extent. TheCatalogue of Chinese Publications in Tibetan Studies (1949-1991) lists 1,497Tibetological publications, 813 in Chinese and 663 in Tibetan. Some well-known Tibetan writers who publish in both Chinese and Tibetan includeJangbu andTsedor. Adding to the diversity of Tibetan literature are longtimeHan Chinese residents of Tibet who were educated in Tibetan; theselao Xizang (Tibetan veterans) often publishliterary criticism with nostalgic and sentimental overtones.[4]
The literary scene since the 1990s generally organises itself in terms of small self-named groups of young writers, many of whom studied atQinghai University inXining. Among the first were the Four Demons of the Old Fort, followed by such groups as the Four Scholars, the Four Owl-Siblings of Rongwo, the Third Generation, etc. Within China the most promoted author isAlai (1959-), who writes in Chinese.Tashi Dawa, the vice-chairman of the TARWA, is another prominentSinophone Tibetan writer.[1]
Writers in theTibetan diaspora also produce literature. The first literary journal of such writers wasJangzhon (1990–97), which was succeeded by several different independent periodicals; and the First National Conference of Tibetan Writers, organised by the Amnye Machen Institute, was held from 15–17 March 1995 atDharamsala, India. Books inEnglish have been written by exiles such asBhuchung T. Sonam,Tsering Wangmo Dhompa,Jamyang Norbu andTenzin Tsundue. Especially popular areautobiographies of Tibetans for an American and British audience. However, pressures from the popular expectations of Western readers for what Vincanne Adams calls the "authentic Tibetan" limit success to authors who identify themselves "as Buddhist, as nationalist, and as exiles". Tibetans who actually live in Tibet, or whose experience incorporates aspects ofChinese orWestern culture, are seen to be "tainted".[5]
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