shrines, thousands of pious monks and laity came to pray and worship. The travellers were being
protected from the demon-filled perils of the open desert.
Chapter 3 - Building the library
Another day, my friends and I went to the desert again we tried to collect some hair from
the two-humped Bactrian camels to make our painting brushes. Buddha suddenly appeared and
gave us some vellum of his manuscripts. “Children, I am soon leaving this place, copy these
manuscripts in different languages and put them in the shrines so my followers can read them
and remember my teaching of peace, love and joy.” We brought the manuscripts back to school
and all the students diligently copied them in Tibetan, Uigur, Sanskrit, and Sogdian languages.
The height of the pile of manuscripts that we produced was more than a hundred feet. We built a
library to hold all these manuscripts of more than 50,000 copies.
Chapter 4 - The Flying Apsaras
We saw Buddha the last time when he was sitting on lotus leaves under a fig tree in the Gobi.
A parade of spirits was fluttering airily in the breeze above him and some spirits were flying
among flowers with their long silk streamers. The spirits were Buddha’s minstrels. They danced
and played pipa, banjo and flute for him. After a while, devoted followers of Buddha arrived and
swamped the place. These followers travelled a thousand miles across the Gobi simply to seek the
wisdom of Buddha. When Buddha expounded his doctrine, his voice was melodious, like that of
an ancient song-bird. At the end, the souls of his followers got relieved, liberated from fears and
filled with love again. At this moment, the parade of spirits scattered fresh fragrant flowers. The
scent was so delighting and the scene was enlightening and peaceful. It looked like a paradise and
it deeply imprinted on my mind.
I decided to paint this wonderful scene for my graduation project. I drew the parade of
spirits on the ceiling of the caves; they look youthful, elegant and full of love. I used silk for the
streamers. I drew more than 4,500 images of them and I finally became an outstanding genius
artist and graduated with distinction. I named them The Flying Apsaras, they were my magnum
opus. The work of our Academy was honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If you want to see
our marvel, come to Mogao Grottes. You will be blessed by the Flying Apsaras.
