The work of taleteller and illustrator, Buddhist monk Yeshi Dorjee, and the transcriptionist and editor of the tales, East Asian historian John S. Major, The Three Boys and Other Buddhist Folktales from Tibet is not intended to be the definitive last word on the subject, nor even “a scholarly study of Tibetan folklore and folk literature” (5). No time is dedicated to variants or cross-cultural tale typology because, as Major notes in his clearly written, jargon-free introduction, “there is already a large body of scholarship in those fields.” Rather, the goals of Dorjee and Major are far more modest. Although they hope that scholars and folklorists will find the collection a valuable contribution to Tibetan, Buddhist, and folklore studies, their foremost intent is to offer a general audience “oral versions of these stories as they were learned by one young monk at the feet of his elders.”
Yeshi Dorjee was born in 1960 in Bhutan, the son of Tibetan political refugees. Dorjee learned his first Tibetan folktales from his uncles (his father died before he was a year old). At nine, Dorjee joined other Tibetan exiles in Karnataka, India, where he began attending Gyudmed Tantric University, eventually receiving the Buddhist doctoral level degree of Geshe Ngarampa . Eager to learn more about Tibetan culture and religion, Dorjee performed various chores and assisted elderly monks, also Tibetan exiles, in the fields in exchange for their oral transmission of Tibetan folktales. Dorjee absorbed a vast number of Tibetan Buddhist folktales in his twenty-five years at the university. Today Dorjee can “retell” dozens of tales “nearly word-for-word as he learned them from his teachers” (5). Dorjee’s initial motivation to learn the tales was a combination of intense personal interest coupled with a desire to assist in the preservation of “the old culture and knowledge of Tibet”(3). Dorjee continues this endeavor of preservation by teaching Buddhism at the Land of Compassion Buddha Center in West Covina, California, through this collection of tales, and by donating all of his proceeds from the book towards eventually opening a School of Tibetan Sacred Arts in the United States.
On one hand, the tales are meant to be enjoyed for their own merits, simply as entertaining stories. On the other hand, the tales were initially designed either for proselytizing those persons interested in Buddhism or to clarify to Buddhists how to live according to the precepts of Tibetan Buddhism. Consequently, didactic themes extolling the benefits of living according to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs run throughout the tales. Folklorists will appreciate the insight into Tibetan Buddhist worldview which saturates the tales. Some of the recurring themes are “the Buddhist principle of contingency” which is that “everything is part of a great chain of causality” (215); the inevitable cause and effect of karma, as the actions of past lives affect the present life (and state of rebirth) of each sentient being; the illusory nature of all earthly things; and the importance of compassion for all sentient beings. In short, the tales illuminate the Tibetan Buddhist worldview that “accept[s] the presence of several simultaneously operating levels of reality, each giving clues to the next, each crafted of a degree of deceptive illusion except the last, each coexisting with the other in a nonnirvanic space” (French 154).
Each of the tales is briefly explicated through the lens of Tibetan Buddhist doctrine. These explanations of the tales are contained in a separate section so as “not [to] intrude on” the “enjoyment of the stories themselves” (7). That the tales serve a didactic purpose does not make them stiff or stuffy. On the contrary, as Major notes, many of the tales are earthy, and the characters are often flawed so as to display the ill effects of folly and distraction. The tales are also important because they illustrate the idiosyncrasies of Tibetan Buddhism. For example, while strict Buddhists usually refrain from eating meat, Tibetan Buddhists generally labor under no such restriction, likely due to the ready availability of the meat from herd animals (especially yaks) which is needed to supplement a diet often lacking in agricultural output due to the high altitude and intense winds of Tibet. Another difference of note is the belief among Tibetan aristocracy in a “ la jewel” (206), often made of turquoise and worn about the body, which is “considered to be a symbol and a receptacle of the person’s spiritual power and energy.”
By far the most prevailing theme in the tales is the intense need for mindfulness in order to keep oneself from being distracted by the illusory world of earthly desires and the unending quest for gratification. (See Thurman, page 309 for a fuller discussion of this concept.) Mindfulness is also the thematic motif of the continuing frame story of seven of the book’s fifteen tales, which chart the efforts of Dersang to return the captured Ngudup Dorjee, a “corpse-monster” (7), to Dersang’s master, Lord Nagarjuna, a Buddhist saint (said to have lived an astounding six hundred years [Thurman 298]), so that Nagarjuna can transform Ngudup Dorjee into gold in order to benefit the poor. Although the monster is easy for Dersang to catch, if the boy speaks even a single word throughout the
Journey, the monster is able to escape. Dersang practices mindfulness in order to keep from being distracted by the tales that the monster tells Dersang on the journey to Nagarjuna.
Major’s process of collecting and transcribing Dorjee’s tales is significant in that his methodology is a conscious attempt to put into practice the message of mindfulness that many of the tales advocate as essential for proper conduct. Following standard ethnographic practice, Major tape-recorded Dorjee’s telling of the tales. However, during Dorjee’s performances of the tales, Major’s “main effort was put into mindful listening” (9), exerting an intense concentration in order to remember the details of each tale. Major continued this practice of mindfulness in his transcription of the tales. Rather than transcribing the tales word-for-word from the recordings, Major wrote out Dorjee’s tales from memory, “referring to the tape when necessary,” in order to be faithful to Dorjee’s “specific phrasing and pacing.” Major completed the transcription process by allowing Dorjee to read over the tales in order to check them for any errors or omissions. While purists may understandably prefer that Major had transcribed the tales verbatim, it should be noted that one of Major’s goals was to transform Dorjee’s texts (given in English) into “smooth, idiomatic English” adapted specifically for “laypeople” (5), meant to be “enjoyed equally by grownups, young adults, and children” (10). (My five year-old son, who knows nothing of Tibet or Buddhism, immensely enjoyed the stories read aloud to him.)
The book closes with “Suggestions for Further Reading,” in which are listed editions of the eleventh-century Sanskrit compilation, the Vetâlapañcavim?ati (twenty-five corpse tales), in which the complete set of tales about Dersang is located. Also included is a bibliography of scholarly studies of Tibetan Buddhist folklore, as well as a list of previously published collections of Tibetan folktales.
Given their modest and realistic goals, combined with a fresh ethnographic approach, Dorjee and Major have admirably succeeded in creating an entertaining and informative addition to Tibetan Buddhist studies for both a general audience and scholars new to Tibet studies. And, of course, for those “who just know how to enjoy a good story” (6).
Works Cited
French, Rebecca Redwood. “Buddhist Secular Law: Doctrines in Context.” In The Life of Buddhism. Eds. Frank E. Reynolds and Jason A. Carbine. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 152-159.
Thurman, Robert A.F. Essential Tibetan Buddhism. Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 1995
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[Review length: 1265 words • Review posted on September 26, 2007]