This is the first book-length study to appear in English on the literary, cultural and political roots of modern Tibetan literature. While existing scholarship on modern Tibetan writing takes the 1980s as its point of “birth” and presents this period as marking a “rupture” with traditional forms of literature, this book goes beyond such an interpretation by foregrounding instead the persistence of Tibet’s artistic past and oral traditions in the literary creativity of the present. While acknowledging the innovative features of modern Tibetan literary creation, it draws attention to the hitherto neglected aspects of continuity within the new. This study explores the endurance of genres, styles, concepts, techniques, symbolisms, and idioms derived from Tibet’s rich and diverse oral art forms and textual traditions. It reveals how Tibetan kāvya poetics, the mgur genre, life-writing, the Gesar epic and other modes of oral and literary compositions are referenced and adapted in novel ways within modern Tibetan poetry and fiction. It also brings to prominence the complex and fertile interplay between orality and the Tibetan literary text. Embracing a multidisciplinary approach drawing on theoretical insights in western literary theory and criticism, political studies, sociology, and anthropology, this research shows that, alongside literary and oral continuities, the Tibetan nation proves to be an inevitable attribute of modern Tibetan literature.

"The journey that this work takes one on is extremely rewarding. This is an absorbing and illuminating read. It is composed in a style that should appeal both to the academic community and a wider audience. For anyone with a specific interest in modern Tibetan literature this is essential reading. Equally, it can be recommended to anyone wishing to learn about contemporary Tibetan culture, and even the traditional literary heritage of Tibet." - The International Journal of Asian Studies

"This ambitious landmark study offers an in-depth and meticulously researched examination of the persistence of Tibet's artistic and oral traditions in the literary creativity of the present. . . . this book is a stunning piece of research that offers fresh and invaluable insights into a world of modern Tibetan literature. Lama Jebb is to be commended for his unparalleled command of Tibetan oral and literary works, as well as his rich, innovative, and thought-provoking analysis. A beautifully written and highly accessible read, this book was simply a pleasure to read and is recommended to anyone with an interest in modern Tibetan literature." - Asian Highlands Perspectives