The mysterious origin of the “Bi Discs” of Jade and the “Dopra Stones”
In ancient China, in an era dating back to at least 5 thousand BC, large stone discs were placed on the bodies of deceased aristocrats, but their meaning and original function still eludes us, just as it is not clear how they were fabricated, given that they were made from jade stone, an extremely hard material.
Jade is a stone belonging to the silicate family and is often used to produce vases, jewelry and other ornaments. It is usually colorless, but contamination with other minerals, such as chromium, gives it its characteristic emerald green hue. It is an extremely difficult material to work with, a factor that makes one perplexed by the fact that it was already used 7 thousand years ago in Neolithic China, a period in which metal tools were not yet available.
The most puzzling shape given to this magnificent stone by Chinese Neolithic craftsmen is that of the disc, often called Bi discs. These are flat rings created by the Liangzhu culture for ceremonial purposes.
In fact, most of these particular artefacts were found in the burials of high-ranking deceased people, where they were found together with the equally enigmatic cong tubes, jade artefacts with a circular section on the inside and a square section on the outside.
The stones were placed in a prominent position on the body of the deceased, usually near the stomach or chest, and often represented the classic symbolism relating to the sky. The Chinese word for jade stone is YU, meaning pure, treasure, noble.
The function and original meaning of these enigmatic objects remains unknown, given that Neolithic cultures left no written documents. Furthermore, the symbolic meaning has probably changed over time. Later traditions associated bi with the sky and cong with the earth.
Even the manufacturing technique remains shrouded in mystery, as they were produced in an era in which metal was not yet known. Upon closer visual analysis, the double discs appear to have undergone brazing and polishing processes, a result that requires extremely long and complex processing times.
However, one thing is evident: the jade discs and cong tubes were made by skilled people, capable of working with a rare and extremely difficult material to work with. So, the question is: why use so much time and human resources to produce this type of product?
It is reasonable to think that the importance of these stone discs and tubes is proportional to the processing time required. According to some scholars, only an extremely important and symbolic event could have started the bi-disc tradition.
Given the disconcerting resemblance to the Dropa stones, some have hypothesized that the bi-discs have to do with the descent of the gods to earth which, translated into our cultural categories, could refer to the visit of non-terrestrial beings to our planet in ancient times.
The Stone Discs of Dropa
The Dropa stones are a collection of 716 discs dating back to around 12 thousand years ago, characterized by the engravings of small hieroglyphic signs. Found along the Sino-Tibetan border, the Dropa Stone Discs (The Dopra Stones) are believed by some to be evidence of an ancient alien crash on Earth.
The disks were discovered in 1938 by Chi Pu Tei, professor of archeology at Peking University, and his students, during the exploration of a series of caves in the Himalayas.
During the expedition they discovered an astonishing cavity that had remained unexplored until then; when the explorers entered they realized that more than a simple cave it was a system of artificial and interconnected tunnels.
The walls had been smoothed and appeared crystallized, as if they had been cut by an extreme heat source, while strange inscriptions were engraved on them representing all the planets in our Solar System, including the Sun and the Moon.
Furthermore, the group also found a series of small tombs that contained the skeletons of strange creatures just 1.30 meters tall and with enormous skulls. They certainly belonged to an unknown race. Next to the tombs, 716 granite discs with a diameter of 35 to 50 cm and with a central hole, one centimeter thick, were found piled up.
The discs on one side were covered in strange hieroglyphics, while on the other they showed a spiral engraving that started from the center and ended towards the outer edge, very similar to modern vinyl music records.
The finds were secretly transferred to Beijing to be studied by a team of scientists led by Professor Tsum Um Nui, who concluded that the disks dated back to 10,000 BC and told the story of a group of aliens called Drog-pa (yellow skin), coming from a planet 12 thousand light years away.
One day they came to visit our planet, but their spaceship crashed in the mountains of Tibet. It seems that the aliens had peaceful intentions. Once they realized that they could no longer return to their home planet, the aliens were forced to settle on Earth, mixing with the local population. But things were not as easy as the ancient visitors had thought. Some of them were exterminated by local tribes, frightened by their inhuman appearance.
The local natives say that in ancient times two tribes lived in that area and that the strange beings only 1.30 meters tall had come from the sky. Eventually, the natives learned to coexist with the few surviving aliens. Chi Pu Tei and his team found interesting rock pictographs depicting strange beings with spherical helmets on their heads.
Tsum Um Nui apparently published the results of his studies in 1962 in a scientific journal, attracting insults and derision from the scientific community. Shortly thereafter, he retreated to Japan in voluntary exile, where he died shortly after completing his work. Analysis revealed that the stones contained high concentrations of cobalt and other minerals, which made the stones particularly difficult for such a primitive people to work with.
