Tales from the Mogao Grottoes

"Look what I found," Fung said excitedly. "these caves are enormous!"
Fung had been clearing the sand blocking the caves as he was curious what could be hiding
inside those caves. He got his good friend Li for help. Their work inspired numerous individuals to
help them expedite the discoveries.
"Woah! What do those symbols on the manuscripts mean?" asked Li as he was examining a
desk in the cave.
"I don't know. Let's ask our archaeologist," replied Fung. "come here, Manuel."
Manuel was one of the many people assisting at the site. He's a pal of Fung who liked the
tales from the past. He entered the cave and was immediately astounded by what they had managed
to find.
"These manuscripts tell us the stories of a man who used to live in this cave!" Manuel
blurted excitedly.
A long time ago, a team of monks was travelling on the newly established Silk Road. He
passed an uninhabited zone and saw an oasis, perfect for a stopover. He found a giant cave on the
side of the mountain and stopped there before continuing. After he had returned to the temple, he
invited the people from the temple over to his newly discovered oasis. Much of the population
relocated to the oasis, and it became a location where people traded for goods.
When the place was first being developed, the most pressing problem wasn't the fact that
there were no houses for the population to live in, it was that the place had no name! It was decided
that the development is called by the discoverer's name, Mogao.
"We had never heard of that story before," Li commented. "Should we publish this?"
"Not before I finish reading the stories." Manuel replied.
As most of the population were Buddhists, a temple was built inside where the monk stayed
during his trip. An army of 500 people worked on the greatest construction challenge of its time.
They painted the history of their civilization and built giant statues of their almighty Buddha.
The construction workers worked every day to complete it as soon as possible. It was tough,
but they got it done just before the annual Mid-Autumn Festival. Civilians in the city rushed into the
temple as it opened in Mid-Autumn. This story taught us that we should be hard-working people.
The Next Year, they had an epidemic in the city. A lot of people died from the disease. The
monk, Mogao, prayed every day for Buddha's help.
"Please save us," Mogao prayed. "We had been attacked by a disease!"
The disease magically disappeared in a month. People believed that their god had saved
them, more and more started to worship the Buddha. A painting was drawn on one of the temple's
walls, used to commemorate what their god had done for them.
Fung's team was delighted with their findings and published them as a book. The following
year, another expedition team came after reading about their discoveries. They found even more
goodies.
"Look what I found," Choi yelled eagerly, as he dug through a wall. "there's a ball that is
glowing."
"I am more interested in the scroll next to it," replied Sam. "let's see what it reads."
There was a person who loved collecting minuscule and cool stuff. He saw the small
glowing ball one day and wanted it, but the person who owned it wouldn't give it to him. One calm
night, he snuck into the temple and stole the ball.
The person who owned it released that his ball had been stolen. He went to the court and
told them what happened and asked for help. The thief was found as he was flexing his new toy. He
was arrested and put into prison. This story taught us that stealing isn't at all a great idea.
The cave collapsed and nobody lived there for thousands of years, but people like Fung, Li
and Choi will continue to make ground-breaking discoveries inside this time capsule.

(666 words)