THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE PAST IN THE CREATIVITY OF THE PRESENT:MODERN TIBETAN LITERATURE AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Abstract

Thus sings Sangdhor in a metrical poem in praise of Tibetan versification, countering an anti-verse sentiment that is prevalent on the contemporary Tibetan literary scene. Since the flourishing of free verse form in the 1980s, thanks to the pioneering works of Dhondup Gyal, many Tibetan writers have attacked metrical composition for its perceived inflexible, archaic and inadaptable form and uniformity of content. Sangdhor, one of the most iconoclastic and forward-thinking intellectuals writing in Tibetan today, vehemently refutes such a stance on the grounds that the bulk of great Tibetan works, literary or otherwise, are set in verse. To underscore his point he writes the cited poem in a “leaping and flying” style of themgur(‘poem-songs’) genre. In fact, most of his many innovative poems are written in an eclectic style drawing on Tibet's rich literary tradition, Buddhist texts, oral sources and contemporary writings. Their content is equally diverse yet most of all current. It is infused with social and religious criticism, themes of romance and eroticism, critical literary commentary and current Tibetan affairs. His poems, like those of many other writers, show that metered poetry is very much a part of modern Tibetan literature. As he draws on classical literature and indigenous oral traditions for his own literary innovation, to borrow a concept from Northrop Frye, in Sangdhor's work we can “see an enormous number of converging patterns of significance” that is a complication of Tibetan literary formulas stretching to the narratives of the distant past.2Therefore, it must be borne in mind that modern Tibetan literature transcends a theory of rupture which many scholars overstress to the point of overlooking its deep, outspread roots. Some parts of these roots predate both the 1980s, which saw a flourishing of new Tibetan writing, and the Chinese takeover of Tibet in the 1950s that has had a profound impact on Tibetan cultural production.