Internet podcast brings new life to ancient legend

Long the purview of singers and storytellers, The Epic of King Gesar is now being introduced to new audiences via a new realm: the Internet.

Han storyteller Zhang Zhun worked with Tibetologist Gyanpian Gyamco to produce a 40-episode podcast in Mandarin based on the vast oral narrative about the warrior with boundless supernatural powers.

The episodes are performed in the pingshu style, which features literary and performance devices, such as the use of a poem or rhyme to begin each story, the striking of a gavel to gain the audience's attention and the use of suspense, by way of a cliffhanger, to end each chapter.