I read about the Mogao Caves, or Mogao Grottoes ( 莫高窟; mò gāo kū) otherwise known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas and Dunhuang Caves and was reminded of an old book in English which I retrieved from the library of Taiping CRC (Chinese Recreation Club). Then, CRC was upgrading its library and old books were left for members who care to have it. The Dunhuang Caves form a system of 492 temples 25km (15.5 miles) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province and in the early 1900s, a Chinese Taoist named Wang Yuanlu discovered a walled up area behind one side of a corridor leading to a main cave. Behind the wall was a small cave stuffed with an enormous hoard of manuscripts dating from 406 to 1002 CE. Now the book I retrieved and later lost to white ants contained stories purportedly from a cave in Dunhuang. A few stories were featured and they were written in a very old style difficult to read English. One story that I remembered was Mulien rescues his mother , a popular story among Chinese Literature lover. In a nutshell, the story is about the monk Mulien whose mother who has eaten dog meat was banished to hell and Mulien has gone there merely to save her. It is supposed to be a story about filial piety and I guess this would be a perfect story for this coming Mother's Day!
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