The ancient China
TIBET AND CHINA: The Discs of Baian Kara Ula
Shortly before the Second World War, a group of Chinese archaeologists came across a cave containing a quantity of small skeletons and stone discs, which were deciphered only twenty years later. These discs told the story of an extraterrestrial spacecraft that badly landed in the mountainous area of Baian-Kara-Ula 12,000 years ago.
Western newspapers took the news as "communist propaganda", but a German tour operator confirmed the story: the discs do exist (see photo).
Slowly, the Baian-Kara-Ula Mountains along the China-Tibet border began to reveal their secrets to archaeologists. Scientists discovered an intricate network of interconnected tunnels. In one of these appeared, neatly aligned, the tombs of a race that appeared quite particular: human beings of very minute dimensions, except for the disproportionately large skulls.
At first, scientists believed the caves were monkey dens; but their leader, archeology professor Chi Pu Thei, stressed that he had never heard of monkeys inhumaning their dead. While unearthing the bodies, an archaeologist retrieved a stone disc from the bottom of a pit. Scholars gathered around the artifact, turning it in every direction, trying to understand its meaning. A circular hole in the middle, and a spiral engraved inward or outward, however you wanted to look at it, were the only apparent features.
Closer inspection showed that the grooves were, in fact, a line of small incisions or marks. Each disk could therefore be a "lithic book" but, at the time of its discovery, in 1938, no one possessed a dictionary capable of interpreting it. All the disks were collected together with the other artifacts found in the area and there was no reason to consider them special, they were just bizarre.
The discs were stored in Beijing where, for the next twenty years, a large number of experts tried to interpret them, with no success. Only in 1962 did Prof. Tsum Um Nui finally succeed, and he learned the incredible message contained in the records. He announced his findings to a small group of friends and colleagues, but the general public would always be deliberately kept in the dark, as the authorities thought it more prudent not to announce the professor's findings, to the extent that the Academy of Prehistory of Beijing forbade him to publish any news about it.
So, after two years of utter frustration, the professor and four of his colleagues were allowed to publish the result of their research, which they called "Report of a spaceship which, as recorded on the records, descended on Earth 12,000 years ago."
The discs found in the cave, 716 in all, told the story of the inhabitants of another world stranded in the mountains of Baian-Kara-Ula. The peaceful intentions of these beings were not understood by the local population. Many of them were chased down and killed by members of the Han tribe, who lived in nearby caves. Professor Tsum Um Nui read a few lines of his translation:
"The Dropa came out of the clouds with their airplanes. Before dawn our men, women and children hid in the caves ten times. When they finally understood the signs of the language some Dropa realized that the new arrivals had peaceful intentions..."
Another part of the text says that the Han were sorry that the Dropa had crashed in that difficult area and that they were unable to build a new vehicle to return to their planet. But his colleagues, totally incredulous, mocked Tsum Um Nui and this attitude annoyed the professor, so he decided to move to Japan where he died a few years later.
After 25 years other archaeologists collected new elements on the site where the discovery had been made on the basis of which the story, as it appeared in the translation of Tsum Um Nui, could be correct. Legends, still circulating at that time, spoke of short, hairless, yellow-colored men who "had come down from the clouds long ago." The beings had large, gnarled heads on small bodies and were monstrous to behold, according to local villagers who had chased them on horseback. Their description matched the characteristics of the bodies that Professor Chi Pu Thei recovered in 1938.
Inside the caves, wall paintings were found indicating the rising sun, the moon, unidentified stars and the earth, all interconnected by dotted lines. The records and the contents of the caves were dated to about 10,000 years before Christ. The caves were still inhabited by two tribes calling themselves Han and Dropa, the latter somewhat strange. Barely five feet tall, they were neither Chinese nor Tibetan, and experts were in the dark about identifying their ethnic stock.
The Record Translation Report, released in 1964, would not spell the end of this mystery, as other private individuals and research organizations were taking an interest. The discs were examined by Soviet scientists, who after removing bits of "dirt" and conducting chemical analyses, were shocked to find that the discs contained rather high amounts of cobalt and other metals. They were then spun on a phonograph-like machine. When the device was activated, the discs "vibrated" or "hummed" as if an electric charge was passing through the disc at a particular rate or, as one Soviet scientist put it, "they were part of an electrical circuit".
It was the proof that, somehow, the discs had once been exposed to high electrical charges.
Shortly after the deciphering of Tsum Um Nui, in the late 1960s, the cultural revolution erupted in China, and nobody cared about those records and their message anymore. In 1974, the Austrian engineer Ernst Wegerer came across two discs in the Bampo Museum in Xiang and photographed them. However, it was Hartwig Hausdorf, in March 1994, who changed the situation. Together with his friend Peter Krassa they set out for China in search of the records. Among thousands of difficulties - the director of the museum, due to the photo granted to Wegerer, had been dismissed and the records had been removed from the museum halls, but the obstinacy of Hausdorf, who had traveled as far as China for those records, finally won. He was allowed to see an enlarged copy of those disks.
They also collected the story of an Englishman, Dr. Karyl Robin-Evans, who was shown a stone disc which he believed was found in Nepal. The disk had a radius of 12 cm and a thickness of 5 cm. The professor had placed the disc on a scale-recorder, which showed how in the space of three and a half hours the disc apparently gained and lost weight. How could a stone disk change weight? Robin-Evans then set out for the mountains of China, in search of the Dzopa tribe.
The Baian-Kara-Ula region hadn't been affected much by the Chinese invasion. Robin-Evans managed to reach his goal and gain the trust of the Dzopa people. He had a linguist with him, who taught him the rudiments of the Dzopa language, and Lurgan-La, the religious leader of the Dzopa, told him the history of his tribe, whose home planet is in the Sirius system. Lurgan-La explained that two missions had been sent to Earth, the first 20,000 years ago, the second in 1014 B.C. During this last visit some spaceships crashed and the survivors were no longer able to leave the Earth: the Dzopas were the direct descendants of these people.
Among Robin-evan's possessions was an incredible photograph: Royal couple Hueypah-La and Veez-La. They were 1.2 and 1.07 meters tall respectively! Not only were their body sizes unusual, but so was their physiognomy.
It was also important to establish whether the "Dropa" and the "Dzopa" constituted a single tribe or belonged to different nuclei, a controversy of which Robin-Evans seemed to be aware. Although the term "Dropa" represented the correct spelling, "Dzopa", or rather "Tsopa" was closer to the exact pronunciation of the word.
Two problems remained: the dating of the stone discs, 12,000 years ago, did not coincide with the statements of the religious leader: 20,000 years ago and 1014 years before Christ. Furthermore, the discs appeared to contain contradictory descriptions: they spoke of individuals belonging to the Dzopa tribe when referring to the Dropa and the discs were written by the Dropa. Maybe some locals mixed with the Dropa? Or was the information somehow altered? Although Hausdorf, Krassa and Robin-Evans have not been able to explain these contradictions, other researchers will be able to help clarify the still obscure aspects of this case. Hausdorf was however able to prove that the stone discs and the Dzopa tribe actually existed. And this story could lead to more important new discoveries.
The Secrets of the Chinese Emperor Ch'i She Huang Tì, "the Yellow Emperor"
Ch'i She Huang Ti, known as the Yellow Emperor, was one of the most vicious tyrants of all time. His goals were power, wealth and glory. He wanted, more than anything else, to defeat death and in a certain sense, it seems he succeeded, since today we still talk about him and his mysterious tomb. The belief that there was a correspondence between the earthly and celestial realms led him to seek immortality and convinced him that he was part of the cosmos and that he was its cornerstone.
Two years before his death in 210 BC at the age of 49, he began one of his great enterprises: the construction of an immense pyramid, a large sepulchral monument where his remains rest. An immense project, which included large walls, temples, imposing gates that delimited and enclosed the imperial stables.
The eastern entrance was defended by a spectacular life-size terracotta army that preserved it after death and whose existence remained unknown until recently. An army equipped with real weapons and armor which, ironically, were used by the peasants, five years after his death, to defeat his son and thus put an end to his dynasty. The army was found by chance in March 1974 by a farmer during the excavation of a well.
Eight thousand warriors were found, guarding an artificial hill more impressive than the Egyptian pyramids.
A legend tells that Huang Ti ascended to heaven riding a dragon, after having forged a magical boiler; other texts have it transported by a Flying Dragon, an animal also mentioned in documents of 1,500 B.C., according to which the Chinese kings descended from heaven.
What remains of him would be found in the pyramid, according to Chinese chronicles and, with him, an unimaginable treasure. The inner doors of the tomb were closed and all the workers killed so that they did not tell what they had seen and done. The outer door was also locked, forever burying those inside.
It is said that the sarcophagus of She Huang Ti is protected by automatic crossbows that would shoot deadly bolts against anyone who tries to enter and surrounded by the reproduction of his entire empire, complete with palaces, hills, mountains, seas and rivers where mercury flows for simulate, with its flickering, the effect of water. A miniature landscape illuminated by large lamps powered by whale oil, designed to never go out. Their dim light would illuminate a ceiling reproducing the sky of that era with its constellations and stars, made up of gems and pearls, which shine like real stars.
The Chinese are convinced that if something goes wrong it is because their ancestors are not happy. So it's best not to disturb the emperor's spirit.
The director of the museum where the terracotta army is today explains that it is more prudent to wait a few decades, in order to allow the technology to be able to open the tomb without damaging it. Perhaps there are other real reasons, at least taking into account the "speculative" stories that have spread.
Pyramid
The mound would have been found in 1914 by some French archaeologists, the Segalen expedition. A pyramid of five steps, 48 meters high, with 350 meters on each side and a volume of 1,960,000 cubic meters which makes it the fourth monument in the world.
It appears to be a double pyramid, with one part above and one below the ground. The underground section, according to the chronicles, was built in Egyptian style, obviously upside down, externally lined with bronze. It would also have been hermetically sealed by a bronze plate and there would be a certain fear of what might happen when it was opened.
The very serious chronicles of the historian Sseuma Ts'ien (13,585 B.C.) provide curious information about the monument, of which Patrick Ferryn in his Les ultimas demeures des fils du ciel gives us an excerpt:
"Sce Huang He brought the whole empire together in his hands. Over 700,000 workers were sent to the construction of the tomb. The ground was dug up to the water, bronze was poured in and the sarcophagus was brought.Inside were transported and buried wonderful utensils, jewels and rare objects. Buildings were reproduced for all the administrations. Some craftsmen were ordered to make crossbows and automatic arrows, so that if anyone wanted to make a hole they would be killed. A true underground palace stood where streams of mercury drew eternal rivers. Above were all the signs of the sky, below all the geographical dispositions.
Torches were made with seal blubber so that they would last for a long time. At the end of the funeral, when the coffin was lowered, the central road that led to the sepulchre, the door of the external entrance was dropped and all those who had been employed as workers or craftsmen and who had built the machines and hid the treasures were locked inside because they knew everything that had been hidden in the tomb, they knew its value and would divulge its secret. It was then placed on the mound of vegetation, so that it resembled a mountain".
The other pyramids of China
A custom that the Chinese have adopted with each pyramid is to make them appear as hills emerging from the plains, visible from great distances.
Western archeology has thus realized that in China there are hundreds of step pyramids, in the South American style, 500 of which seem to have been already catalogued.
Years ago, American airmen photographed in Shensi, south of the Ordos, an immense Egyptian-style pyramid 40 miles SW of Sian (XIan), towards Chilingshan. Its height was estimated at 300 meters, with sides of 500 meters and dating back to the time of the Hsia dynasty, over 4,000 years ago. The news is given by Charroux in his Masters of the World.
In 1950, Peking Academy scholars explored eight burial mounds of the early Chou kings in Anyang in the HouChiaChuang area including WuKuang's Tomb. The complex is located north of the Huan River in northern Honan. There are many pyramids discovered by the Segalen expedition, more modest, but all with steps that recall the pre-Columbian ones.
Other pyramids are also found in the Gobi desert, an area where it is very difficult to conduct research. Referring to the Chinese pyramids, we must mention the one known as the White Pyramid, sighted in 1945 by the pilot James Gaussman, on his way to the base of Assam, in India. Due to a plane engine failure, Gaussman changed course and, flying over Chinese territory, he photographed the huge pyramid, which he described as made of metal or white stone. It was searched for a long time but no one has ever found it. Gaussman's photo remained in a military archive for 40 years, then Brian Crowley published it in his book The Face on Mars. Professor Rudenko G. discovered in the vicinity of Outer Mongolia tombs (Kurgan) the remains of which can be seen in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (St. Petersburg).
The most interesting, located in Pazyrik, is called "Kurgan V". Inside were found musical instruments, jewels, food, a mummy of a woman and a man of European type perfectly preserved, thanks to the insulating action of the wooden case covered with frozen earth. In the Gobi desert the archaeologist Stern Aurel found celestial charts dating back to 20,000 years ago, paintings depicting South American Indians and some vases full of mercury.
Nuclear mercury
Following the surveys carried out in that region by some Soviet scholars, concerning vast areas with portions of vitrified earth, Jacques Bergier hypothesized that the mercury was used to produce nuclear energy and that the desert civilization was destroyed by a war fought using vehicles airplanes and explosives of unheard-of power, which are also mentioned in the sacred Hindu texts.
Terracotta Army
Set of over 6000 life-size terracotta statues depicting soldiers and horses, found in 1974 in Qin, near Xi'an, China. The statues were in an underground chamber, discovered by some farmers while they were digging a well; arranged in orderly rows ready for combat (hence the conventional denomination of "army"), they probably represent people who existed in reality. The harnesses of horses and chariots are made of bronze and leather, and some of the soldier's accessories are made of jade and bone. The bows, arrows, spears and swords with sharp edges are forged in a metal alloy that has maintained its original shine over time.
According to a highly accredited archaeological and historiographical hypothesis, the terracotta army was part of the funeral equipment of Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of the Ch'in dynasty, the one who began the works for the construction of the Great Wall. The tomb complex dates back to about 2,100 years ago and it seems to have extended over an area of 50 km2, containing numerous funeral objects: this is what ancient Chinese writings say, which describe a large palace built under a tumulus to house the emperor died. Archaeological finds include a number of large bronzes - the oldest known in China - and over seventy burials; the burial cell of the sovereign, however, has not yet been found.
