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An Outline of the Bibliographic History of Nangsa Ohbum THESIS

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An Outline of the Bibliographic History of Nangsa Ohbum THESIS An Outline of the Bibliographic History of Nangsa Ohbum THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Katherine Elizabeth Fitzgerald, B.A. Graduate Program in Comparative Studies The Ohio State University 2015 Master's Examination Committee: Hugh Urban, Advisor Mark Bender Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy Udo Will Copyright by Katherine Elizabeth Fitzgerald 2015 Abstract This paper explores the bibliographic history of the story of Nangsa Ohbum (snang sa ‘od ‘bum or snang gsal ‘od ‘bum or a lce snang gsal or snang sa or snang bza' 'od 'bum). Nangsa Ohbum was a women born in Central Tibet in the 11th century, whose tale has emerged in three genres of Tibetan literature: resurrection tales (‘das log), religious biography (rnam thar) and performance scripts (‘khrab gzhung). Nangsa Ohbum has also emerged as a character in Tibetan opera (a lce lha mo) and is still performed to this day. Despite questions of the authenticity of Nangsa Ohbum’s biography, she persists as an important icon of early Tibetan women in modern scholarship. Using Rey Chow’s critique of post-structuralism, this paper attempts to parse out previously convoluted interpretations of Nangsa Ohbum as an historical woman, a character of Tibetan literature and performance and a representative of Tibetan women in academic discourse scholars. ii Dedication Dedicated to Pema Buza, to a lifetime of curiosity iii Acknowledgments This paper would not have been possible without the tireless assistance of Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy, Yeshi Jigme Gangne and Kunchhok Bumang. I would also like to thank Bryan Cuevas, for generously responding to my inquiries, and Lawrence Epstein, for going out of his way to provide scans of Ascetic Kunga Rangdrol’s version of Nangsa Ohbum’s tale. For brief, yet inspirational audiences during the writing of this paper, I would like to thank Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro and Sarah Jacoby. I would also like to thank The Ohio State University Graduate School and The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center for providing fellowships that enabled me to perform the research necessary for this paper. Additionally, I would like to thank Chinese Oral and Performing Literature (CHINOPERL) (中國演唱文藝研究會) and the Transnational Asia/Pacific Section of the American Folklore Society for providing me with the opportunity to present various iterations of this work. Finally, I would like to thank my adviser, Hugh Urban, and readers, Mark Bender, John Huntington and Udo Will, at The Ohio State University, for their many helpful insights and suggestions. iv Vita 2010................................................................B.A. Theatre, Barnard College 2012................................................................Certificate, Tibet University 2013................................................................Association for Asian Performance - ........................................................................Emerging Scholar Award 2014-2015 ......................................................The Ohio State University – University ........................................................................Fellowship 2015................................................................2015 Robert L. and Phyllis J. Iles Award for ........................................................................Graduate Study of Myth 2015................................................................Jonathan T. Y. Yeh Award for Student ........................................................................Scholarship in Asian and Asian American ........................................................................Folklore 2015-2016 ......................................................Chinese Foreign Language and Area Studies ........................................................................Fellowship Publications Fitzgerald, Kati. “Tibetan Opera in and outside the Tibet Autonomous Region.” Asian Theatre Journal. Spring 2014. Fields of Study Major Field: Comparative Studies v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv Vita ...................................................................................................................................... v An Outline of the Bibliographic History of Nangsa Ohbum .......................................... - 1 - Introduction ................................................................................................................. - 1 - 1. Nangsa Ohbum as Historical Woman ..................................................................... - 3 - 2.1 Nangsa Ohbum as Literary Figure: ‘das log ......................................................... - 6 - 2.2 Nangsa Ohbum as Literary Figure: rnam thar ...................................................... - 9 - 2.3 Nangsa Ohbum as Literary Figure: 'khrab gzhung ............................................. - 16 - 3. Nangsa Ohbum as Exemplar for American and European Scholars ..................... - 21 - Conclusion ................................................................................................................. - 28 - References ..................................................................................................................... - 30 - vi An Outline of the Bibliographic History of Nangsa Ohbum Introduction Nangsa Ohbum (snang sa ‘od ‘bum)1 was an historio-mythical Tibetan woman of the 11th-12th centuries. Born in Central Tibet, Nangsa Ohbum’s story tells of an extraordinary life of suffering and spiritual awakening. Her story persists in Tibetan culture through three genres of Tibetan literature, as well as in performances of Tibetan opera (a lce lha mo). Because of her position as one of very few Tibetan women of the 11th-12th centuries about which we have any information, she is also a person of interest to scholars of Tibet. The long and complex history of Nangsa Ohbum in all her various forms can never be fully recaptured; whether Nangsa Ohbum was a single historical figure with a fixed biographic narrative embellished over time, or a mythical tale crafted by a master storyteller cannot now be discerned. Nevertheless, the ways in which Nangsa Ohbum's representation has changed throughout time and space might elucidate something important about genre in Tibetan literature and, more pressingly, the representation of Tibetan women. While some translators and scholars have suggested that Nangsa Ohbum’s story might be used to understand the circumstances of Tibetan women of the 11th or 12th century, this paper attempts to complicate this narrative. As with many religious figures in Tibet, the social function of Nangsa Ohbum has changed drastically over time and throughout various literary and performance genres. Before 1 This paper utilizes Wylie transcription originally proposed in the 1950s by Turrell Wylie (“A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 22 [December 1959], 261-67). For the sake of readability, snang sa ‘od ‘bum will be rendered phonetically as Nangsa Ohbum for the rest of this paper. - 1 - examining modern scholarship on Nangsa Ohbum, this paper will begin by outlining existing evidence of Nangsa Ohbum as a historical woman. It will then go on to look at Nangsa Ohbum in three genres of Tibetan literature: resurrection tales (‘das log), religious biography (rnam thar) and performance scripts (‘khrab gzhung). Finally, it will examine the treatment of Nangsa Ohbum in the European and American record and conclude by putting forth a somewhat more nuanced interpretation of the ways in which Nangsa Ohbum does and does not represent Tibetan women. This paper takes as a theoretical frame the work of critical cultural theorist Rey Chow, whose work criticizes the objectification of ethnic subjects and their literature. Chow argues throughout her career that this process of objectification can be performed by ethnic writers and performers themselves, who simply fulfill cultural constructs of otherness and ethnic-ness. While only one Tibetan scholar discussed in this paper might be seen to participate in this process, it is clear that a certain kind of over-simplification has emerged in contemporary scholarship concerning Nangsa Ohbum. Rey Chow’s identity as a woman raised in Hong Kong and educated in the United States allows her to perform an exciting critique of ethnicity. Speaking of the poststructuralist2 project, of which this paper might be seen as a part, Rey Chow writes, […] it has irrevocably radicalized cultural as well as textual studies but meanwhile has tended to remain iconophobic, to essentialize non-Western others’ differences in the form of timeless attributes, to conflate the mobility or instability of the sign with existential freedom, and to confine the practice of critically nuanced thinking within specific ethnic parameters (Chow 2002, viii–ix). 2 Poststructuralism, while a sweeping category of literary and cultural criticism, in this case refers most directly to the work on representation by Barthes (see (Barthes 1957), (Barthes 1977)), Foucault (see (Foucault 1990)), Deleuze (see (Deleuze
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