Magnum Opus in the Gobi
Marymount Primary School, Eleanor Cheung, Fiction: Group 2
Chapter 1 - A special paint
“Yippee!” I screamed excitedly as I surfed over the sand dunes in the Gobi Desert. Surfing the
up and down terrain of Gobi’s sand dunes was the favorite pastime of fairies. The thrilling
experiences of surfing the singing dunes of Khongoryn Els could not be even described in words
as the dunes were over a hundred people tall and hundreds of kilometers long.
I am Fairy Eleanor, a senior student of the Fairy Academy for Art. I am proud to be a student of
this famous academy. The admission to the academy could be as difficult as vacuuming all the
sand in the Gobi Desert. Each fairy had to go through three rounds of audition including painting,
sculpture and calligraphy. More importantly, the academy only chose fairies with a pure heart of
bringing joy and beauties to the human world.
In my graduation project, I was assigned a very challenging task of creating a signature piece
of art for the Gobi. I really wanted to create a stunning piece of art that would amaze the whole
world and therefore I could graduate with distinction. I travelled around the Gobi in search of
ideas. One day my friends and I went to the desert to get some painting materials, an old man
slowly came towards us. His skin was luminously golden in color and his body was surrounded by
an aura. He said to us, “Children, do you want to paint beautiful pictures that will receive high
acclaims and remain in this world forever?” In astonishment, we replied, “How come you read our
minds?” With a smile of affection, he replied, “I am an old man of wisdom. Skim off the colorful
crystal from the rainbow, boil it with the mineral water from the Crescent Moon Spring.” Then
he scrapped a dab of golden luminous color from his skin and said, “Add this to the color. It will
make your painting a celestial beauty. Remember to pour your heart to your paintings and give
blessings to them; in return your paintings will bless those who see them.” We couldn’t thank him
enough and we hurried to school. Before we parted, we asked him his name. He replied, “My name
is Buddha. You can find me meditating under a fig tree in the oasis.”
Chapter 2 - Building the shrines
The news of the new paint spread throughout the school, it made our artwork magnificent. We
began to paint the scenes of Silk Road, mountains, rivers, cities and hunting activities. We painted
in walls of grottos. Our murals radiated iridescence from the rainbow.
One day while we were sand surfing, we saw a pack of bandits robbing caravans, killing all
the travelers. We were panic-stricken and bolted to the fig tree to find Buddha. Seeing our eyes
flooded with tears, Buddha pitifully said, “Dear children, do you want to save the lives of the
travelers?” We unanimously nodded our head. “Build shrines out of the caves and make sculptures
of me.” We followed Buddha’s instructions and built hundreds of shrines with Buddha statues
using terra cotta and paint with the special paints. The Buddha statues were in different postures,
some were sat with crossed legs; some are lying on one side to sleep, some with their hands
upraised; some with Buddha sitting on lotus flower meditating. We also made Buddha murals on
the walls of the caves. The murals depicted the stories told by Buddha. Soon after we finished the
