Tibetan Americans brought a great repository of folklore and folktales with them to the United States. Coming from a troubled country, Tibetans found great freedom in America, a nation very receptive to Tibetan culture. Tibetan American culture relies upon its heritage of songs and folktales, folklore, and folk heroes for identity. Basic Buddhist tenets underlie all of these cultural activities. These include notions such as loving kindness, compassion, and clarity of mind, with the hope of alleviating the suffering of others so that all beings may experience the highest peace, or nirvana. Their head spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is perhaps the most recognizable figure from Tibet. The Dalai Lama, thought to be the incarnation of the rebirth of the chief Buddha of compassion, serves as the primary folk hero for Tibetans.
The history of Tibet is important in understanding the practice of Tibetan folklore and folk life in America. Tibetans have been migrating to the United States for at least one hundred years, but the first large wave came when China occupied Tibet in 1949. Since that time and with the assistance of laws regulating immigration, a number of Tibetans have settled in the United States. Although numbers vary, roughly ten thousand Tibetan Americans can be said to live in a variety of small communities throughout the United States. There are large concentrations of Tibetans in Los Angeles and New York City, as well as cities in the Northwest and those of the northern Midwest.
The United States opened up many cultural avenues for Tibetan Americans. Since their arrival, many Tibetan Americans have freely shared their culture. Tibetan dance shows are popular, and restaurants have begun popping up in many cities, as have a number of Buddhist monasteries. As the population of Tibetan Americans grows, so does their knowledge of America and its past, including both its history and literature. Like any other immigrant group, however, Tibetan Americans feel a closer bond to their own folklore and folk life than to American folklore. While first-generation Tibetan Americans may have a rough understanding of American folk life and American culture, second-generation Tibetan Americans have more of a grasp of American culture.
Aku Tonpa
Although the Dalai Lama is the current living incarnation of Avalokitesvara, many other manifestations of the Buddha of Compassion show various guises throughout Tibetan folklore; these are a conduit through which the Tibetan American community teaches their children about their ancient culture. The great hero Gesar, whose adventures and battles against evil are legend, is one such embodiment. In a genesis story, on the other hand, Avalokitesvara takes the form of a monkey who fathers six offspring upon an ogress, engendering the ancestors of the Tibetans, who therefore showed attributes of both the saintly father and the monstrous mother. Perhaps the most popular folkloric figure of this type, however, is the comic Aku Tonpa, “Uncle Tonpa,” a clever trickster who pulls the wool over the eyes of foolish Tibetan villagers in order to teach them wisdom and thus to protect them from true evil when they meet it.
C. Fee
Tibetan culture is rich with folktales and folk songs, and many are learned at an early age. The songs, which have been passed down orally through generations, come from a wide pool of sources. Like American folk songs, Tibetan folk songs are often regional. Historically, the folk songs were anonymous, sung by a variety of wandering singers. Later Buddhist monks wrote them down, and often the spiritual leaders wrote their own songs. Folk songs were important for religious leaders, such as certain Dalai Lamas, and often they composed them. Thus, folk songs were a practice of both the nobility and the common people. As with the underlying tenets of Buddhism, most songs feature notions of love and peace for sentient beings. They are also usually spiritual and romantic. Although many of the songs focus on nature and its beauty, some suggest deeper Buddhist themes, such as compassion. Later in the twentieth century folk songs were further modified with their dances.
Many of these songs are still sung in Tibetan American households, even though they are hundreds of years old. Many Tibetans and Tibetan Americans sing, and they are brought up with both singing and dancing. Tibetan folk songs and dances go hand in hand. Tibetan Americans show their love of their homeland in their dances, which incorporate songs. Many of these dances, such as Trin Kar Gyi Dabma, have elegant costuming and stage settings. The song sets the pace for the dance, and other formal dances, such as Brahmaputra, employ the songs as a way of character development.
Like their songs and dances, Tibetan Americans have a rich supply of literary folktales. Although there exists a large amount of the Tibetan literature that involves spiritual and classical works, such as the many writings of Mahayana Buddhism, many Tibetan Americans enjoy orally based tales from the past. Some are trickster tales, while others are religious and historical in nature, and still others tell of a mythological past, such as Gling rje Gesar rgyal povi mam tar (“The Epic of Gesar”), the story of Avalokitesvara, and folktales about certain Dalai Lamas.
The “trickster” is one of the oldest genres of folktales. America has its share of trickster tales, but for Tibetan Americans the trickster is a savvy character who highlights certain values through his actions. Trickster tales are abundant in Tibetan literature, and they appear to be related to other national trickster figures through literary associations and theme. Nyi chos bzang po stands as the archetypal Tibetan trickster. Nyi chos has an early mention in Greek literature, and he has a collection of tales centered on him that comes from the oral tradition. He is a sagacious character, like the Greek Aesop, skilled at maneuvering his way through a variety of situations and events.
Often in the case of Tibetan folktales, other elements such as songs are added to emphasize a theme or character, or to add intrigue or color. “The Epic of Gesar” is one such folktale. “Gesar” incorporates a number of Tibetan folksongs and dances in its presentation. Like the Greek Iliad or the Indian Ramayana, the Tibetan “Gesar” is perhaps the best example from the oral tradition and stands as a national war epic, although “Gesar” centers on a spiritual battle. Collated in the 1930s and 1940s by Chinese scholars, Gesar’s tale is often read by Tibetan Americans. It is a story mainly about good versus evil in its variety of guises, which sets out to foil sentient beings. The story showcases a number of Buddhist beliefs and provides Tibetan Americans with their own epic story.
A variety of spiritual folktales also tell of foundational Tibetan folk heroes, such as Padmasambhava, Milarepa, and the stories of a few Dalai Lamas. One of the most popular folktales is the story of Avalokitesvara, or the Bodhisattva of Compassion, from which the Dalai Lamas are thought to originate. Like “Gesar,” this is a national folk story, one that almost all Tibetan Americans read. Also like “Gesar,” the story of Avalokitesvara is designed to teach—in this case, the subject is dharma.
The Avalokitesvara story is important because of its creation narrative. According to the tale, a monkey, who was an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, meditated, married a female demon, and had six children. Three of these took on the father’s traits and three the mother’s. These were the first Tibetans. Subsequently, all Tibetans are thought to be Avalokitesvara’s descendants.
Avalokitesvara represents the purely Tibetan notion of the incarnation of deity within mortals, like the Dalai Lama. According to legend, Avalokitesvara was a great being who sought to end the suffering of all beings before he reached nirvana. One day, he realized how many people needed help, and his body shattered. His soul pleaded to the Buddhas, and one, Amitabha, came to help. With Amitabha’s help, Avalokitesvara took on a new form, one with one thousand helping hands and eyes to help all sentient beings.
Perhaps the greatest folk symbol of Tibet is the Dalai Lama, a figure traditionally thought to be reborn in a line of tulkus, or compassionate bodhisattvas. Much Tibetan culture, in fact, including its folklore and folk tales, centers on Tibetan spiritual history, Tibetan Buddhist traditions, and Tibet’s spiritual figurehead, the Dalai Lama. In early Tibet, before Chinese occupation, temples stood at the center of the culture, and the shrine acted as the spiritual foundation. A variety of Dalai Lamas have earned status as folk heroes, such as the sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (1683–1706). He was a writer, poet, and singer, and wrote a corpus of love songs. He wrote one poem called “White Crane” to symbolize the place of his rebirth. His life was colorful, and there are many stories about his fascination with women and parties. His demise is shrouded in the controversy of at least two different stories.
Today the Dalai Lama serves as a symbol of Tibetan folk life in America. The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, a tremendously popular figure in the United States, inspires a number of Tibetan Americans. Tibetan households typically have images of the Dalai Lama. Because of the Dalai Lama and the message of the Free Tibet movement, Tibetans have gained access to the American imagination and have been able to showcase their folk heritage. As the Dalai Lama serves to link community identity and strength, Americans embrace Tibetan religion because of his popularity. Tibetan Americans continue to practice their cultural traditions, with values mainly rooted in Buddhist religious traditions, which stand as representative of Tibetan folklife.
The Dalai Lama
Born Lhamo Thondup in 1935 near Kumbum Monastery in what is now Tsinghai Province in China, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is now known as Tenzin Gyatso. Each Dalai Lama is considered to be the current living incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion, and traditionally headed the Tibetan theocratic government. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize among numerous other honors, the Dalai Lama has been in exile since 1959, following the Chinese annexation of Tibet. In addition to providing spiritual leadership, the Dalai Lama embodies the ideals of Buddhism and represents the ethnic pride of Tibetans, and his photo adorns shrines in many Tibetan American homes. The Dalai Lama is especially significant given the political tension between the Chinese authorities and ethnic Tibetans abroad—notably those in the United States—who see their spiritual leader in exile as an icon of Tibetan autonomy and pride.
C. Fee
Michael Modarelli
See also Great Gourd from Heaven, a Laotian American Myth
Further Reading
Bentz, Anne-Sophie. 2012. “Symbol and Power: The Dalai Lama as a Charismatic Leader.” Nations and Nationalism 18 (2): 287–305.
The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. 1962. My Land and My People. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lianrong, Li. 2001. “History and the Tibetan Epic Gesar.” Oral Tradition 16 (2): 317–342.
Shelton, A. L. 2009. Tibetan Folk Tales. Santa Cruz, CA: Evinity.
“Tibetan Folk Tales.” ChinaCulture website. http://www.chinaculture.org/library/2008-02/04/content_25804.htm. Accessed June 5, 2015.