Book Series
- World Oral Literature Series vol. 13
- ISSN Print: 2050-7933
- ISSN Digital: 2054-362X
Copyright
Menla Jyab; Timothy Thurston; Tsering Samdrup;Published On
2025-09-16ISBN
Language
- English
Print Length
328 pages (xxii+306)Dimensions
Weight
OCLC Number
1537555337LCCN
2025465551THEMA
- ATY
- JHMC
- DSA
- NHF
- CFB
- AVA
BISAC
- SOC002010
- PER011020
- LIT008000
- HIS008000
- LAN009050
- MUS015000
LCC
- PL3748.S58
Keywords
- Tibetan cultural revival
- Khashag spoken dialogues
- Menla Jyab comedies
- Tibetan expressive culture
- Post-Mao Tibetan literature
- Cross-cultural performance analysis
Careful Village and Other 'Khashag' from Tibet
The Amdo Comedies of Menla Jyab
- Menla Jyab (author)
- Timothy Thurston (translator)
- Tsering Samdrup (translator)
- Timothy Thurston (editor)
- Tsering Samdrup (editor)
Endorsements
The decision to provide readers not only with English translations but also with the transcripts of the original Amdo Tibetan playscripts, presented side by side, makes this collection particularly valuable. The collaboration between two sholars — a native Amdo Tibetan-speaker and a native English-speaker — furthermore provides for particularly skillful translations and relevant cultural and linguistic commentaries which are provided in footnotes for English-language readers.
Xénia de Heering
Université Paris Cité, CESSMA
Additional Resources
Contents
Foreword
(pp. xix–xxii)- Mark Turin
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
1. The Artist སྒྱུ་རྩལ་པ།
(pp. 47–58)- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
2. Boasting ལབ་རྒྱག་པ།
(pp. 59–82)- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
3. The Dream རྨི་ལམ།
(pp. 83–108)- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
4. All-good Menla སྨན་བླ་ཀུན་བཟང་།
(pp. 109–132)- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
5. Elders’ Conversations ལོ་ལོན་ཚོའི་ཁ་བརྡ།
(pp. 133–152)- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
6. Please, Dear Leader དཔོན་པོ་མཁྱེན།
(pp. 153–176)- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
7. The Telephone ཁ་པར།
(pp. 177–192)- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
9. Careful Village’s Bride སེམས་ཆུང་སྡེ་བའི་མནའ་མ།
(pp. 223–240)- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
11. Careful Village’s Thief སེམས་ཆུང་སྡེ་བའི་རྐུན་མ།
(pp. 271–298)- Menla Jyab
- Timothy Thurston
- Tsering Samdrup
Contributors
Menla Jyab
(author)Menla Jyab was born in 1963 in a pastoral community called Lutsang, located in Mangra (མང་ར། Ch, Guinan 贵南) County, Tsholho (མཚོ་ལྷོ། Ch, Hainan 海南) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PR China. Growing up in the chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution, he attended primary school in a tent at the age of seven. His studies were good, and he eventually matriculated to the renowned Tsholho Normal School, which served as an incubator for several of the post-Mao period’s most famous Tibetan intellectual and cultural talent. Then, in the 1980s he joined the Hainan Prefectural Song and Dance troupe (མཚོ་ལྷོ་ཁུལ་གླུ་གར་ཚོགས་པ།), and embarked on what would become a storied career as a comedian and public intellectual. Also publishing under the pseudonyms “Pleasure Bringing Snow Child” (T, གངས་བུ་དགའ་སྐྱེད།), and Burning Pebble (T, འབར་རྡེའུ།) Menla Jyab has developed a strong reputation not only as a comedian but as an accomplished poet and essayist as well.
Timothy Thurston
(translator)Timothy Thurston is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Associate Professor in the study of Contemporary China at the University of Leeds. His research to date has looked extensively at Tibetan comedic dialogues. His book Satirical Tibet: the Politics of Humor in Contemporary Amdo (2025, University of Washington Press) and publications in peer reviewed journals like Journal of Asian Studies and CHINOPERL have all examined some of the comedies translated in this volume. Thurston is also editor of Western Folklore.
Tsering Samdrup
(translator)Tsering Samdrup is from an area of Amdo near to where Menla Jyab called home in childhood. He completed a PhD at SOAS, a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Leeds, and is an assistant professor of instruction at Northwestern University. With research primarily focusing on Tibetan linguistics, key publications that support his volume include “Humilifics in Ma bzhi Pastoralist Speech of Amdo Tibet” in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 42(2): 222-259, and his translation of the Menla Jyab's “The Dream” was published in Yeshe: A Journal of Tibetan Arts and Literature and Humanities.
Timothy Thurston
(editor)Timothy Thurston is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Associate Professor in the study of Contemporary China at the University of Leeds. His research to date has looked extensively at Tibetan comedic dialogues. His book Satirical Tibet: the Politics of Humor in Contemporary Amdo (2025, University of Washington Press) and publications in peer reviewed journals like Journal of Asian Studies and CHINOPERL have all examined some of the comedies translated in this volume. Thurston is also editor of Western Folklore.
Tsering Samdrup
(editor)Tsering Samdrup is from an area of Amdo near to where Menla Jyab called home in childhood. He completed a PhD at SOAS, a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Leeds, and is an assistant professor of instruction at Northwestern University. With research primarily focusing on Tibetan linguistics, key publications that support his volume include “Humilifics in Ma bzhi Pastoralist Speech of Amdo Tibet” in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 42(2): 222-259, and his translation of the Menla Jyab's “The Dream” was published in Yeshe: A Journal of Tibetan Arts and Literature and Humanities.