Abstract
Based on fieldwork by the author conducted in Tibetan cultural areas of the Indian Himalayas, this paper explores Himalayan understandings of what defines a fairy tale, in contrast to the Western understanding. In parts of the Himalayas, a distinction is made between “lakshung” (fairy tales) and “kyakshung”, which are shorter stories, the kind one might tell over tea. In light of the proposals to record and disseminate many of these stories using new media, this paper seeks to examine these genre definitions and investigates the various contexts in which these stories are told.
Highlights
The Western fairy tale genre has long been the subject of attempts by scholars to be defined, and the concept has proved to be a slippery one
There is a distinction between the fairy tale and other genres in Himalayan culture, and a superficial reading may justify the claim that these genre distinctions include similar features to those found in the Western tradition
We see examples of fairy tales that can be classed as fables, and motifs commonly associated with one genre regularly appear in other genres
Summary
The Western fairy tale genre has long been the subject of attempts by scholars to be defined, and the concept has proved to be a slippery one. Recent scholarship [1] has even questioned whether some of the most famous European fairy tales can be classed as such. Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale [3] attempts to describe fairy tales according to their component parts and Max Lüthi [4]. Surveys fairy tales in contrast to related genres. A similar distinction exists between fairy tales and other kinds of stories, but there is no consensus about how to differentiate between these various narratives. Stories from outside of the West are being digitised and disseminated in both old [5] and new [6] media
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