The Life of King Gesser, the longest epic poem in the world, will be turned into over 1,200 Tangkas, or paintings, in three years as a move to preserve the invaluable ethnic heritage.

According to a project recently launched in China, over 100 Tangka painters will use minerals and gold to draw the Tangkas depicting the events and figures in the Tibetan epic.

Tangka, a painted or embroidered banner which was hung in a monastery or a family altar and carried by lamas in ceremonial processions, is famous for its refined brushwork and gorgeous colors with motifs like religious figures or events as well as knowledge of Tibetan calendar and medicine.

King Gesser, acclaimed as the king of epics, is composed of 120 volumes in more than 1 million lines and more than 20 million words.

Telling the full story of a great ancient king who conquered the devils of other Tibetan tribes and made Tibet a stable, peaceful and happy place to live in, the King Gesser epic was created over 1,000 years ago and is the longest epic in the world, longer than the Greek epic Homer, and the Mahabharata, a famous Indian epic.

Noted as the world's longest and only surviving epic, King Gesser has been translated into other languages, including English, French, German, Russian and Hindi and has spread to more than 40 countries and regions worldwide. The epic in 200 verses has been orally handed down by ballad singers for 1,000 years in China.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2004)