Context, he writes, has allowed the scholar to correlate the kind of expression used with certain situations: “kyi-li-li is used for a woman’s glance, the rainbow, and lightning, kyu-ru-ru for laughing or songs, khyi-li-li for a squall and for heaving waves, khra-la-la for the sound of hooves, tha-ra-ra for 'clouds' of assembled warriors and the black poison, me-re-re for a thick crowd, the ocean, stars (the crowd of stars, no doubt), and so forth.”  A similar technique is the prefacing of a song with a version of its melody sung without actual words, a kind of folderol.  “In the epic,” Stein goes on to demonstrate, “the song is tha-la tha-la la-mo la-ling; it is tha-la la-mo la-la.”

A distinctive evolution can also be discerned in the use of meter.  The dactylic line of five or six syllables is the most frequently found and traditionally Tibetan meter in the Tun-hang manuscripts.  But in the epic, as in the poetry of Tibet’s well-loved poet-saint Mila Repa, the trochee, seemingly of folk origin itself, has replaced the usual form.  A monosyllabic word also may be placed at the beginning of a line but not counted in the required number of beats—exclamations like “ho!” or the logical subject of the line may take this position.

The main story of Gesar is told in prose frequently interspersed with dialogue.  Professional singers chant the prose narrative rapidly and on a single note.  The dialogue, on the other hand, is presented in the form of long songs, called glu.  A limited variety of melodies (called rta, or horse) is used to mark situations, and sentiments such as anger, joy, triumph, or sadness, rather than specific characters.  The presentation is almost theatrical, with each character using the fixed formula: “Do you know me?  If not, I am …” to introduce himself, his sword or weapons, and his horse.  Most Tibetans know the main outline of the legend, and have grown up singing its most famous songs, much as Americans can still sing the early folk tune “Yankee Doodle.”

The written manuscripts follow the oral tradition quite closely, with the main story line in prose, and the dialogue in alternating songs in verse.  These two parts are frequently distinguished further by use of different scripts.  And it is clear that the written epic as it now appears has preserved fragments of an earlier, independent, and probably popular song cycle.  Verse fragments depicting the experiences of Joru, the childhood Gesar, are written in a peculiar style, different from any other segments of text.

The presently known versions of the epic all agree on the general outlines of the story revealed in the first five or six chapters (le’u), each of which forms one or two volumes in the written form.