Tales of the Golden Corpse: Tibetan Folk Tales (International Folk Tale Series) - Softcover

Benson, Sandra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566566320 ISBN 13: 9781566566322

Publisher: Interlink Books, 2006

Synopsis

Includes 20 to 30 tales, accompanied by an introduction and an historical overview which give readers insights into the culture, the folk literature, and the lives of the people in various regions.

About this title

About the Author:

Sandra Benson is the author of the English-Tibetan Folktale Reader, the first collection of Tibetan folk tales used in English-language education in Tibet. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 9 Up—This collection of 25 traditional tales presents something of a marketing challenge, as it contains a few disconcerting elements. The selections are all told by a dead body, being carried on the back of a boy. There's a house of blood with a flag of human skin in one story; in another, someone is burned alive, and several characters' hearts are eaten by witches. But there are also tales of young love and true love, even if some involve awful deaths, too. Bad kings who tax excessively, and crop or water failures (attributed to demons) lead to sudden poverty (and death). It's a harsh life in Tibet (even royals herd and farm), but Buddhist values of self-sacrifice, honesty, and compassion also infuse these secular tales with hope. Typical folktale elements (strange births, magical powers, unlikely youngest sons, helpful animals) and even close parallels to European tales seem universal, while proverbs and poems woven into the stories add Tibetan flavor. The narratives are not always structured or resolved as one might expect, and readers must sometimes answer the question posed by the corpse-carrying boy at the end of the tale. Brief commentaries on each story provide additional data on Tibetan life and culture, as do the introduction and glossary. These fast-paced tales, like yak-butter tea, will not satisfy every taste, but specialists and those who enjoy the macabre and exotic will relish them.—Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George's School, Newport, RI
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About this edition

• Publisher: Interlink Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1566566320
• ISBN 13: 9781566566322
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224