Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 1942 (Letters)

This unsatisfactory state of affairs is mainly due to the inaccessibility of the Tibetan uplands and the impossibility of making a survey of all the existing versions of the Tibetan epic of king Kosar of Ling. [...] By far the most popular and the most extensive is the book on the 'War against the Hor tribes '. The number of chapters in the various versions of the epic vary considerably. [...] Some contain only the chapters on the `Birth of Kesar' in which is included the story of his marriage the chapter on the 'Destruction of the Demon king of the North ' and the chapter on the 'War against the Hor tribes'. [...] The West Tibetan version edited by A. H. Francke contains the chapters on the ' Birth of Kesar' the story of his youth and marriage to 'Bru-gu-ma (1401 'Brug-mo of the North-East Tibetan versions) the story of Kesar's visit to China the destrution of the Demon king of the North and the chapter on the ' War against the Hor tribes'. [...] Madame A. David-Neel's Kham version of the epic contains the chapters on the ' Birth of Kesar' his fight with the Demon king of the North Kesar's return to the land of Ling and his war against the Hor tribes his war against the country of Jang Kesar's war against the king of the South and against the king of sTag-gzig (Iran).