This historical ballad has been continuously recounted and written since the 11th century. It portrays a group of heroic figures led by King Gesarl in conjunction with the Tibetan people struggling bravely and intelligently against wicked forces. Depicted on a grand scale, with a unique and distinctive plot, with exquisite poetical description, it has an unmistakable, distinct theme. This epic not only preserves the historical record of wars between the ancient Tibetan Dynasty and adjacent tribes, nationalities and neighboring countries, but also records the accumulated folk wisdom and experience of the Tibetan race in ancient times, and brings to life dramatically real scenes from the life of ancient Tibetan society.

    Since ancient times, the Gesar Biographical Epic has been deeply loved by all the people in many different places. Special balladeers could be found, as well as many written versions of varying length and volume.

    The epic is also widespread amount the Mongolian and Tu nationalities. There are translations both in Chinese and Mongolian in our country while abridged translations exist in Russian German English and French. After liberation, our research institutes concerned have been working on this monumental portion of world literature, gathering, sorting out, collecting, studying and publishing the material on a large scale.