Bayan-Kara-Ula Discs
In 1938, an archaeological expedition in Tibet found in a cave tombs of one-meter-tall hominids and 716 cobalt discs: extraterrestrial hypothesis or modern mythology?
The Bayan-Kara-Ula discs are very peculiar Ooparts (out-of-place artifacts) because they are accompanied by a story that is both incredible and highly engaging. This ancient story took place in the mountains of Tibet and was brought to light more than sixty years ago.
It was 1938, in the Bayan-Kara-Ula area, between China and Tibet, a region still largely unexplored today. During a Chinese archaeological expedition led by archaeologist Chi Pu-Tei, an astonishing cave was discovered, previously unexplored. Upon entering, the researchers realized that it was more than just a cave; it was a system of artificial, interconnected tunnels.
The walls were smoothed and appeared crystallized, as if cut by an extreme heat source, and there were strange inscriptions on them representing all the planets in our Solar System, including the Sun and the Moon. Inside the cave, a series of tombs were lined up, and when the men opened them, they were astounded to find many small skeletons, about 1.30 meters tall with large skulls, clearly belonging to an unknown race. Initially, one of his collaborators suggested they were a species of primates, but Professor Chi Pu-Tei rightly pointed out that no one has ever seen monkeys bury their dead.
Next to these tombs, the archaeologists found 716 granite discs with diameters ranging from 35 to 50 cm, each with a central hole and about one centimeter thick. The discs were covered with strange hieroglyphs and spiral engravings starting from the center and ending at the outer edge, somewhat like modern vinyl records.
These artifacts were secretly transferred to Beijing to be studied by a team of scientists led by Professor Tsum Um Nui. Before him, Russian scholar Vyacheslav Zaitsev of the Russian Academy of Sciences spoke about the stone discs in the late 1950s. Later, in 1962, the Chinese scholar spent more years analyzing the symbols on the surface of the discs without achieving any results, but eventually, he managed to decipher the strange hieroglyphs. What he discovered was so unsettling that the authorities prevented him from disclosing the results of his discovery.
Nevertheless, some time later, the professor decided to make public the content of the discs, dated to 10,000 BC.
This is what the scientist claimed to have deciphered:
"From a planet 12,000 light-years away, spaceships arrived one day and landed in Tibet with great noise, crashing among the Tibetan mountains and causing the population to flee. These space travelers had peaceful intentions but were never able to leave and were forced to mingle with the local populations. The indigenous people of the area recount that in very ancient times, two tribes inhabited this region, and these strange beings, only 1.30 meters tall, appeared out of nowhere or from the sky, descending from the clouds. The name of these star travelers was Drog-pa; they had yellow skin, were short with large heads, and were hairless: they were described as monstrous in appearance. When they settled on Earth, the local tribes waged war against them due to their horrible appearance, while the few survivors mingled with the natives."
Due to this incredible story, the academy officials contested the scholar so harshly that it was ultimately decided to send the artifacts to the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. The Russian scientists' report stated that the discs were made of cobalt and contained large amounts of other different metals.
Dr. Vyacheslav Zaitsev wrote in the Soviet magazine "Sputnik" that when examined with an oscilloscope, the discs began to vibrate frenetically as they were electrically charged; according to the scientist, they were part of an electrical circuit. After this revelation, the Russian experts claimed that such 12,000-year-old artifacts were not the result of earthly technology. The University of Beijing ignored the findings from Moscow, while Professor Tsum Um Nui was unreasonably dismissed and moved to Japan; when he died in 1965, all his notes on the case disappeared. However, there is a mystery surrounding the life of this scientist: his existence is uncertain, as the name Tsum Um Nui is a mix of Chinese and Japanese, meaning the man was Japanese and the name's pronunciation was written in Chinese. This explains why he returned to Japan after retirement.
In 1974, the discs were displayed at the Banpo Museum in Xian and photographed by an Austrian engineer, Ernst Wegerer, after which they were lost without a trace. German scholar Erich Von Däniken, upon learning about the discs, wrote a book about them.
In March 1994, a researcher friend of Von Däniken, Peter Krassa, went to Xian with another scholar named Hartwig Hausdorf in search of the discs at the Banpo Museum, but unfortunately, they were no longer on display. The two asked the museum director for information, who initially denied the existence of the discs but later, after seeing the photos, admitted that a predecessor had allowed Wegerer to photograph them. After that, nothing more was heard about this man either.
