Tibetan Written Images : a Study of Imagery in the Writings of Dhondup
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Tibetan Written Images A STUDY OF IMAGERY IN THE WRITINGS OF DHONDUP GYAL Riika J. Virtanen Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XII, on the 23rd of September, 2011 at 12 o'clock Publications of the Institute for Asian and African Studies 13 ISBN 978-952-10-7133-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-952-10-7134-8 (PDF) ISSN 1458-5359 http://ethesis.helsinki.fi Unigrafia Helsinki 2011 2 ABSTRACT Dhondup Gyal (Don grub rgyal, 1953 - 1985) was a Tibetan writer from Amdo (Qinghai, People's Republic of China). He wrote several prose works, poems, scholarly writings and other works which have been later on collected together into The Collected Works of Dhondup Gyal, in six volumes. He had a remarkable influence on the development of modern Tibetan literature in the 1980s. Exam- ining his works, which are characterized by rich imagery, it is possible to notice a transition from traditional to modern ways of literary expression. Imagery is found in both the poems and prose works of Dhondup Gyal. Nature imagery is especially prominent and his writings contain images of flowers and plants, animals, water, wind and clouds, the heavenly bodies and other en- vironmental elements. Also there are images of parts of the body and material and cultural images. To analyse the images, most of which are metaphors and similes, the use of the cognitive theory of metaphor provides a good framework for mak- ing comparisons with images in traditional Tibetan literature and also some images in Chinese, Indian and Western literary works. The analysis shows that the images have both traditional and innovative features. The source domains of images often appear similar to those found in traditional Tibetan literature and are slow to change. However, innovative shifts occur in the way they are mapped on their target domains, which may express new meanings and are usually secular in nature if compared to the religiosity which often characterizes traditional Tibetan literature. Dhondup Gyal's poems are written in a variety of styles, ranging from tradi- tional types of verse compositions and poems in the ornate NƗvya-style to modern free verse poetry. The powerful central images of his free verse poems and some other works can be viewed as structurally innovative and have been analysed with the help of the theory of conceptual blending. They are often ambiguous in their meaning, but can be interpreted to express ideas related to creativity, freedom and the need for change and development. 3 CONTENTS PREFACE ............................................................................................................ 9 A Note on Tibetan Spellings ........................................................................ 11 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 13 1.1. Purpose of the Study .............................................................................. 13 1.1.1. Research Questions ......................................................................... 16 1.2. Written Images ...................................................................................... 18 1.2.1. Types of Images .............................................................................. 26 2. DHONDUP GYAL AND TIBETAN LITERATURE ............................................. 37 2.1. Life and Works of Dhondup Gyal, a Tibetan Writer from Amdo ........ 37 2.2. Placing Dhondup Gyal in the Context of Literary Traditions and Some Remarks on Traditional Tibetan Literature ................................. 51 2.3. Earlier Research on Dhondup Gyal and Modern Tibetan Literature .... 57 3. VEGETAL IMAGERY ..................................................................................... 65 3.1. Seasons and Flowers: On the Function of Flower Imagery in Dhondup Gyal's Novella "Sad kyis bcom pa'i me tog" ............................ 66 3.2. On Grassland, Gardens and Other Images of Cultivation and Growth ........................................................................... 81 4. ANIMAL IMAGERY ....................................................................................... 93 4.1. Images of Birds ..................................................................................... 95 4.1.1. Mimetic and Metaphoric Cuckoos ................................................. 98 4.1.2. Dancing Peacocks: Influences from Indian Aesthetics ................. 105 4.2. Animals of the Grassland and Depicting Characters .......................... 108 4.3. Mythical Animals and Tradition ......................................................... 128 5. AQUATIC IMAGERY .................................................................................... 135 5.1. Rivers and Time .................................................................................. 136 5 5.2. "The Waterfall of Youth": Conceptual Blending in Free Verse Poetry ................................................................................... 143 5.3. Oceans, Lakes and Waves ................................................................... 152 5.4. The Image of the Blue Lake ................................................................ 158 6. AERIAL AND CELESTIAL IMAGERY ........................................................... 163 6.1. The Sun and the Moon and Images of Light ...................................... 163 6.2. The Enigmatic Cloud in the poem "sPrin dkar gyi 'dab ma" .............. 177 6.2.1. Two Main Levels of Metaphoricity: Modifying the Cloud .......... 181 6.2.2. The Metaphoric Cloud in the Blended Space ............................... 185 6.3. Being in the Mystic Wind .................................................................... 190 7. TERRESTRIAL IMAGERY ............................................................................ 203 7.1. Images of Mountains, Rocks and Stones ............................................. 203 7.2. Paths and Journeys ............................................................................... 207 8. CORPORAL IMAGERY ................................................................................. 219 8.1. Being Alive: Heart and Its Pulse ......................................................... 220 8.2. Inner Organs, Human Concerns and Emotion ..................................... 227 8.3. The Beautiful Woman of Convention and Other Personifications ..... 230 9. MATERIAL IMAGERY ................................................................................ 239 9.1. Images of Thread-like Things: Expressing New and Old Motifs ....... 240 9.2. Arrows and Other Weapons ................................................................ 248 9.3. The True Jewels of Learning: Precious Things and Valuables .......... 253 10. CULTURAL IMAGERY ............................................................................... 261 10.1. Art, Literature and Music .................................................................. 261 10.2. Images from Religio-Mythical Origins ............................................. 268 10.2.1. Where are the Paradises? Secularizing the Heavenly Realms .... 269 10.2.2. Remarks on the Seven Precious Possessions of the Universal Monarch ....................................................................... 278 6 11. CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................... 287 11.1. Observations on Images .................................................................... 288 11.2. General Trends of Imagery in Dhondup Gyal's Works ..................... 292 11.3. Structural Features of Imagery, Genre and Style .............................. 295 APPENDIX........................................................................................................ 301 Table of Tibetan Spellings.......................................................................... 301 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 307 7 PREFACE This dissertation work has long roots reaching back to the mid-1990s when I was living in Dharamsala among the Tibetan refugee community. In those times I first became acquainted with the works of Dhondup Gyal and developed an interest in modern Tibetan literature although I was not aware that a decade later I would write my doctoral dissertation on the topic. I would like to express my gratitude to the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives and its staff for providing a wonderful environment for my studies of Tibetan language and literature that have acted as a basis for my recent research on Tibetan literature. I am especially grateful to Acarya Sangye Tandar Naga who introduced to his students in the Tibetan in- tensive training course classes so many wonderful works of Tibetan literature, including some works by Dhondup Gyal. My dissertation work led me to my first research trip to Amdo and the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2005. It was very meaningful to me that I had a chance to meet and talk with some family members and relatives of Dhondup Gyal during that trip. My long email correspondence with Lobsang Choegyal, younger brother of Dhondup Gyal, led to my visit to his home in Centsa (gCan tsha), where I met Dhondup Gyal's mother Mingme (Mying med), step father Gyatso (rGya mtsho), sister Tsering Kyi (Tshe ring skyid), brother Cagjam Gya (lCags byams rgya), other siblings and relatives, and also Wangpa (dBang bha) and his wife in Xining. During my