On one of my travels on the Delhi to Khotan Silk Route I stopped by a bustling market in Khotan. Of course I ate some wonderful food and stopped at each merchant to see what treasures they held, but this one historical item grasped my attention.  This piece of beauty was so expensive during the time of the Silk and Spice Road. The beautiful jade.

I scuttled through the marketplace. The chatter of foreign tongues danced through my ears. My favorite part of traveling besides eating the food is the language. It feels so exotic and tantalizing as it reaches my ears.

A small vendor is in the far back of the marketplace. An old man is cross legged on a bamboo mat. He has a array of beautiful jade figurines. A small figurine of a panda catches my vision. It stares at me with a soft gaze and it makes me forget my worries. The worries of communicating, or the thoughts of returning home, my budget,or how long my visa will expire.

I sadly turn my head. I can not buy this piece of art. I am already working on a low budget. And the rest of my money is for food and transportation. It was going to be tight going home.

As I started to walk away, a gun starts to go off. A massive wave I of people scramble away from the sound. I am paralyzed from fear. I am surrounded by a mob of people. So even if I did want to move I had nowhere to go. Voices call out, but one is amplified. Then everyone throws themselves on the ground. Assuming that it was the safest thing to do I follow. I do not know how long I stayed there. I could hear sobs of fear and pain. When everything was quiet I lifted my head so slowly that a snail could beat me. When I saw that there was no threat, I started to stand on my shaking knees. Everything was in ruins. The beautiful colors of textiles were smeared in blood and were torn. And to my far left I glimpsed a familiar sight. The once beautiful jade panda was smash into billions of shards.

~Amanda Thrasher