1 minute read
Brenda Yates
Commerce: The Cave Temples by Brenda Yates
Near the Great Wall’s westernmost frontier, a military outpost set down to guard a trade route between two deserts became another
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great invention: a city — that center of multiplicity, of voices, customs, art — thriving & prospering, coming to be called in its 1100+
years, Oasis Kingdom of Buddha because . . . merchants. Yes, in this story, heroes created a globalism we sometimes have when not
too blind to want success for more than a few like us. They were Arab, Jew, Chinese, Indian, Mongol, Persian, Syriac, Tibetan — travelers
traders, pilgrims — exchanging goods, science, know-how, medicine, belief & worldviews born of Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, Laozi,
Mani, Muhammad, etc. Etceteras who handcarved a thousand temples into the faces of local cliffs, who painted luminous murals
on ceilings, walls, & who adorned them all with sculpture, scroll, silk. Then by imperial command the Jade Gate closed. Trade ceased.
The City? Its grottoes? Abandoned to flood, earthquake, sandstorm & mystery. A Library Cave, for instance: sealed circa 1000, reasons
unknown. Until rediscovered centuries later, nobody knew this place still held May of 868’s Diamond Sutra nor even remembered it was our
world’s first printed book. But that’s another & altogether different story with many fewer heroes.
