Nia (The Still Home and Time)

Author: Liu Wensuo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: When passing by these ruins, take a moment to stop and realize that the place you are walking through was once a vibrant oasis filled with the songs of life sixteen hundred years ago. Everywhere are the architectural marvels and cemeteries of Niya, revealing the material and spiritual world of this early oasis city-state, leaving people today in awe. We can imagine the scene of this camel caravan entering the Niya Oasis: under the autumn sunset of the vast desert, accompanied by the tinkling of camel bells, heavily laden with silk, slowly entering this massive settlement deep in the Taklamakan Desert. The lower reaches of the Niya River hold a mysterious kingdom, said to be home to an unusual ancient script resembling donkey lips, also known as the Donkey Lip Script. The discovery and decipherment of this script have unveiled a dreamlike kingdom to the world. However, there remains an unsolved mystery to this day: this kingdom possessed a highly advanced civilization, yet why was it abandoned? The people here seem to have just left their homes on an outing but never returned, as if time itself had suddenly frozen. What could be the reason for this?