Canongate the Myths

In this extraordinary retelling by award-winning ethnic Tibetan writer Alai, The Song of King Gesar is brilliantly brought to life. It is one of the world's great epics, as significant for Tibetans as the Odyssey and Iliad for the ancient Greeks, and as the Ramayana and Mahabarata in India. Passed down in song from one generation to the next, it continues to be a living part of the Tibetan culture, and is sung by Tibetan bards even today. Set partly in ancient Tibetan society, where evil spirits mingle with the lives of humans, and partly in modern-day Tibet, The Song of King Gesar tells of two lives inextricably entwined. Gesar, the youngest and bravest of the gods, has been sent down to the human world to defeat the demons that plague the lives of ordinary people and threaten to enslave them. Jigmed is a young shepherd, who is visited by dreams of Gesar, of gods and of ancient battles while he sleeps. So begins an epic journey for both the shepherd and the king. The wilful child of the gods will become Gesar, the warrior-king of Ling, and will unite the nation of Tibet under his reign. And Jigmed will learn to see his troubled country with new eyes, and, as the storyteller chosen by the gods, must face his own destiny.