A total of 1,288 traditional Thangka paintings, which follow the epic tale of Tibetan hero "Gesar", will be shown in Beijing from July 30 to August 20 as a key program for the Olympic Culture Festival.

The artwork series, which depicts the Life of King Gesar, a Tibetan heroic tale and the world's longest epic that has been transmitted orally by ballad singers or lyricists for centuries, took more than 100 Tibetan folk painters five years to finish.

With more than 32 million yuan (US$4.57 million) investment from Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and other civilian funds, the paintings are said to be the biggest Thangka art project in the world in terms of scale and technique.

Each painting is two-meter long and 1.4-meter wide, and underwent eight hand-made processes, including gold outlining and brocade mounting.

"Ganzi is King Gesar's hometown. The artwork reflects our traditional ethnic culture and contributes its own beauty for the Olympics," said Li Changping, head of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Li said following the exhibition in Beijing, the paintings will begin a global tour in Asia, Europe, North America and other places.

Academic research organizations in Tibet have visited 57 local ballad singers who were able to sing the epic and made 5,000 hours of recording. It is said that more new artists are able to sing the epic.

With the help of the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, 86-year-old Samzhub, one of China's 150-odd surviving King Gesar ballad singers, has completed verbatim recording of 45 episodes of the epic and 30 publications in the country's three-decade campaign to preserve the 1-million-line, 1,000-year-old Tibetan epic.

"Samzhub's version, including opening, ending and many important stories, is comparatively intact. It's a historic record for an artist to sing 'Gesar' from stem to stem all by himself," said Cering Puncog, vice director of the Ethnic Institute under the academy.

In addition, the country's local academy organizations are stepping up their recording and publication work for "Gesar" in Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2008)