Drawing inspiration

Following the best-selling book series Monsters in the Forbidden City, Chinese writer Chang Yi's new series for children, Fantastic Travels in Dunhuang, was recently released and has become a best-seller on Dangdang, a big online bookstore in China.

The new series is based on the frescos of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang and Yulin Grottoes in Guazhou in Northwest China's Gansu province.

While in her previous series, Chang created stories of monsters borrowed from Chinese legends, in the new series she adapts the stories found in the frescos.

"I hope that after reading my books, kids will recognize the frescos I mention in the stories when they visit the grottoes," she says.

One of the chapters is based on the story of a princess from The Sutra on the Wise and Foolish represented by a fresco in cave No 98 in Mogao.

In the ancient Indian kingdom of Kosala, King Prasenajit had an ugly daughter that he always locked inside the palace in case anyone would see her. When the princess reached marriageable age, the king married her to a poor man with dowries of a high official position, a good fortune and a palace, under the one condition that he must lock her inside the palace and not let anyone see her.