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Every cave we enter is lined with painted
clay sculptures and wall paintings that
depict ancient Chinese legends and
customs. Our guide tells us that there is a
beautiful story behind the creation of the
caves.
I
O
t all started with a
Buddhist monk, who was
travelling
westwards
towards Central Asia in
search of the Buddhist truth
ne day, he
had a vision of light and
1,000
Buddhas,
who
inspired him to carve the
first cave in the middle of a
desert oasis. He thought it
was a message from the
Buddha to make a shrine
here, and dug a small cave
from the cliff in order to
meditate on his vision and
a statue of the Buddha to
pray to. Later on, other
monks joined him and
carved their own caves and
created hundreds of rock
temples. Some of them
hired painters to decorate
the walls with beautiful
images of Buddhism and
sculptors to make statues of
the Buddha and his
disciples.
While listening to this story, Russie props
against the wall and suddenly hears a crack.
One of the bricks moves and something falls
down.
“Look, Frank, it looks like an old scroll. Do
you know what it says?”
“It must be old Chinese, teacher.
I
recognise some of the symbols. “I comment.
“Let´s show it to the tour guide.”
I take the scroll to Wang, our kind tour
guide, who happens to speak old Chinese.
After examining it, he translates it into
English:
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