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Inherited Stories, Timeless Wisdom

Intertextuality and Proverbs in the Aché Lhamo Namthar

Daniel Wojahn

Journal of Tibetan Literature (2024) 3 (1): 45-69.


Issue Section Research

Keywords Tibetan performing arts, Intertextuality, Tibetan popular narratives, Proverbs, Aché Lhamo, Tibetan opera

Abstract

This article focuses on the textual basis of Aché Lhamo, the Tibetan opera. A close reading of multi-layered plays like the Aché Lhamo namthar reveals the elaborate processes employed by the mostly anonymous authors to embed specific Tibetan ideas into these texts. It highlights the importance of understanding the idiomatic language and the role of proverbs in Tibetan stories and narratives in order to fully grasp and appreciate the cultural knowledge they contain. The intertextual structures in the Aché Lhamo namthar show how the successful fusion of Indian and Tibetan culture was achieved by linking and anchoring Indian (Buddhist) tales within the specific Tibetan cultural and historical environment.

རྩོམ་ཡིག་འདིར་བོད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་ཨ་ཅེ་ལྷ་མོའི་གཞུང་བརྗོད་སྙིང་དུ་བཟུང་ཡོད། ཨ་ཅེ་ལྷ་མོའི་རྣམ་ཐར་ལྟ་བུའི་རིམ་པ་མང་པོ་ཅན་གྱི་ཟློས་གར་དག་ཞིབ་ཏུ་ཀློག་དུས། ཕལ་མོ་ཆེར་མིང་མི་གསལ་བའི་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་དག་བོད་པའི་བསམ་བློ་ངེས་ཅན་ཞིག་གཞུང་གི་ནང་བསྲེས་པར་ཞུགས་པའི་ཞིབ་ཚགས་ཀྱི་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱུད་རིམ་མངོན་ལ། དེ་ཡིས་བོད་པའི་སྒྲུང་དང་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཁག་གི་དོན་ཡོངས་སུ་རྟོགས་པ་དང་རིག་གཞུང་གི་ནང་དོན་གང་ཡོད་ངོས་འཛིན་ཐུབ་པར། དེ་དག་ནང་གི་གཏམ་དཔེ་དང་དཔེ་འཇོག་གི་སྐད་ཆའི་རིགས་ཧ་གོ་དགོས་པའི་གལ་ཆེའི་རང་བཞིན་གསལ་སྟོན་བྱེད་ཅིང་། ཨ་ཅེ་ལྷ་མོའི་ནང་གི་གཞུང་བསྲེས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པ་དག་གིས་རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་ནང་པའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་དག་བོད་པའི་རིག་གཞུང་དང་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཀྱི་ཁོར་ཡུག་ངེས་ཅན་ཁྲོད་མཉམ་བསྲེས་དང་མཉམ་སྦྱར་བྱས་པ་བརྒྱུད་རྒྱ་གར་དང་བོད་ཀྱི་རིག་གཞུང་གི་དོན་ཕན་ལྡན་པའི་མཉམ་བསྲེས་དེ་ཇི་ལྟར་བྱུང་བ་བསྟན་ཡོད།།

Authors

Daniel Wojahn

Published 2024-05-31

How to Cite

Wojahn, Daniel. 2024. “Inherited Stories, Timeless Wisdom: Intertextuality and Proverbs in the Aché Lhamo Namthar”. Journal of Tibetan Literature 3 (1):45-69. https://doi.org/10.58371/jtl.2024.71.

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