If we compare Gesar with the world’s five major epics, Gilgamesh of Babylon is a river epic; the Iliad and the Odyssey from ancient Greece are maritime city-state epics; and the Ramayana and the Mahabharata from ancient India are forest epics. Gesar from Tibet is a plateau epic.
   The discovery of Gesar not only enhanced research on the epics of mankind but will also change the geographical and cultural distribution of epics, since it’s area of reference covers almost half of the land described by the ancient epic poems.
   River epics, maritime city-state, forest epics and plateau epics
   Since the time of Aristotle, the ancient Greek epics of Homer were considered to be the first heroic epics and the model on which future epics were based. However, in the 1970’s, archaeologists discovered Gilgamesh of Babylon, which had been buried for more than 2,600 years. This poem of more than three thousand lines came to be regarded as the first epic, written at the dawn of civilization. These three, along with Mahabharata and the Ramayana have become known as the five major epics of the world.
   Epics are a Museum of a people’s spirit, combining history and heroes. They awaken great sleeping traditions through imposing literary form and vivid narration, showing the distinctive characteristics of national cultures and temperaments. This is true of all the ancient epics.
   The particular environment and life-style of the ancient Greeks engendered the nature of the ancient Greek epics. Using the special poetical meter of ancient Greece, the Homeric epics recorded the child-like naive and romanticism of mankind. Like an encyclopaedia, the two grand Homeric epics recorded the vast social life of ancient Greece, and became its cultural and educational foundation of ancient Greece for a long period. In The Republic, Plato said: homer’s epics educated the Greeks’.
   Since their inception, the two grand epics of ancient India profoundly influenced the spiritual life of India, virtually becoming the pillars supporting Hindu culture. They also became an important source for classical Sanskrit theater and narrative poems. The Mahabharata may be rich in thinking with superb scenes describing the heroes of the war for control of the kingdom of Barata, but the Indian people have regarded it as a collection of historical traditions, reserving the title of “poem” for the Ramayana. The Ramayana portrayed India through the most perfect of descriptions. It is regarded as a “beautiful flower combining poetry with philosophy”. “It helps us to see the innermost depths of the Indian nation’s heart”1. The extant great manuscript of the Mahabharata contains one hundred thousand sections (the modern hardback edition has eighty thousand sections); the Ramayana has twenty-four thousand sections (the modern hardback edition is nearly twenty thousand sections long). They have been polished and enhanced by imperial singers and folk poets. The style of the epics is plain and fluent, but it already a decorative style had already appeared and “the tonal pattern of the poems were unnatural”2.
   It is interesting to note that the oldest foreign language version of the Ramayana is in Tibetan, showing a cultural communication that has existed for over 2000 years. Traders, envoys and priests were the media for the transmission of these two different cultures. From early times, the roads and pathways of the Western Regions and China linked the Tibetan and Indian cultures. There are many Tibetan manuscripts and printings in Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang. In 1910, extracts of the Ramayana from India were found in ancient Tibetan documents in the One Thousand Caves.
   In 1920s and’30s, the Tibetan heroic epic Gesar was found. Over the long period of its creation and dissemination, Gesar became into one of the longest epics in the world. It has more than one million lines and over 20 million words compiled into over 120 volumes. It was created by Tibetan people over generations. This epic still holds the particular rhyme scheme with a natural local flavor. It is a typical folktale not written by royal scholars. It is an all-embracing cultural collection cultural creation of different epics.
   It differs from the river epic Gilgamesh of Babylon, the maritime city-states epics Iliad and Odyssey from ancient Greece and the forest epics Ramayana and Mahabharata from ancient India. Gesar is a plateau epic which not only enhanced the research to the epics of mankind but also will change the geographic distribution of people’s epics3.  In the geographic and cultural distribution of the world’s epics, Gesar occupies half of the land. The discovery of Gesar provided an even more extensive view and many new materials for cultural communication in the world.
   Hundreds, or thousands of years ago, the epics of India and Europe were set in writing. Even now, there are still over one hundred tellers and singers of Chinese-style epics
   The heroic epics of China’s ethnic minorities are focused on the region from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the northern grasslands. This area is closely related to the distribution and migration of the long-term nomadic grassland peoples, indicating that they arose from a pasture culture. The great migration of national and tribal societies and the conflicts and war between nationalities are the basic contents of epics. The brave spirit and heroic features became the common subjects of heroic epics. The particular geographic ecological environment cannot be neglected.
   Like acts of mankind, the value of oral epics are also founded on situation, implication and functions. The creations and freedom of the Tibetans arose from their specific cultural background and environment. The Gesar epic has been spreading across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for over a thousand years. One reason is the charm of the stories themselves; another very important reason is the direct transmission from one person to another. Outstanding chapters like as The Realm of Heaven, Birth, Conquering Devils and The Inferno are known to almost every household. Gesar has taken root in the hearts and minds of the people, becoming inseparable from their lives and their region.  Like water from a spring, it continues to live. Despite the passing of centuries, it has continued to read and told in even the remotest of villages. From family to family, person to person, it has spread far and wide. In the process, different versions were created.
   In terms of structure and pattern, the epics of Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Ramayana and Calevana are books divided into chapters. The form of Gesar is different and one volume can contain dozens of different versions of the story. Like a constant spring, Gesar nourished the creativity and joy of song of the people. There are over 100 different minstrels in China. In 1991, more than 20 of these were given awards by government departments.
   It is clear that Gesar is different from Indian and Europe epics which were published in books. The epics of ancient Greece, India and Europe were recorded hundred, or even thousands of years ago and so left their traditional cultural environment, becoming written literature to be researched. The Homeric epics are particularly precise. Gesar, however, remains simple and plain, still being sung by folk minstrels.
Notes:
   1”Sanskrit Literature”(in English) written by  A.Magdona in 1905 published by London Publishing House.
   2”Literature of India”(in German) written by M.Wentenyci in 1909 published by Leipzig Publishing House.”
   3”Cultivation and harvest” Tibetan Section of Ethnic Group Publishing House,published by Ethnic Group Publishing House in December 2001.