The Dropa Stones will either prove to be one of the greatest discoveries of all time or one of the best attempts in the twentieth century to pull the wool over our collective eyes. They are said to tell the story of an ancient race of aliens who after crashing to Earth found themselves marooned here. Unable to repair their spacecraft, they settled in what is now modern-day China. They even mingled with the local tribes that already inhabited the area.

What’s more, according to the legend, this happened around 12,000 years ago, several thousand years before what is accepted by most to be the earliest chronicles of civilization.

Mainstream scholars and even some alien and UFO researchers will tell you that the story of the Dropa Stones is in all likelihood a hoax or fiction that people have taken and re-told as fact. As strong as that argument is, however, some say there is still evidence of these cosmic visitors here today.

Baian-Kara-Ula Mountains

According to the legend, Professor Chi Pu Tei led an expedition into the vast Baian-Kara-Ula Mountains in 1938. The Baian-Kara-Ula Mountains – situated in the wilderness of China – has terrain that is treacherous at best. They discovered a vast cave system during their journey. In them, Chi Pu Tei discovered strange circular stone discs that appeared to have a mysterious spiraling message in unknown hieroglyphics. Seven hundred and sixteen were discovered in total, all containing similar symbols and patterns.

Chi Pu Tei and his team also unearthed row after row of neatly prepared graves that contained the skeletal remains of small humanoid creatures. Their heads appeared to be larger than their relative frail bodies. Strange wall paintings adorned the cave walls. Many that appeared to be of planets, the sun and moon, and other star systems – essentially a star map.

The site certainly didn’t appear to be the remains of a primitive tribe of early humans or even primates. Before they left the area after much investigation, Chi Pu Tei packed up the stones and took them with him. They remained quietly in storage for the next two decades.

Professor Tsum Um Nui

In 1958, the stones found their way into the hands of Professor Tsum Um Nui who worked at the Beijing Academy of Ancient Studies. He immediately went about translating them – something he claimed he had managed to do only four years later in 1962.

According to Tsum Um Nui’s translation, the alien race known as The Dropa (or Dropas), had crash-landed to Earth and were unable to repair their craft. They had initially made a home for themselves in the cave systems of the Baian-Kara-Ula Mountains and were at peace with the local people, even interbreeding with them and essentially creating alien-human hybrids. However, Ham tribesman – also local to the area – for reasons unknown had set about hunting down and killing the Dropa.

Tsum Un Nui was widely panned by critics and colleagues alike – not least as to exactly how he had managed to translate the discs. His response was that he was fluent in other hieroglyphics. His knowledge of these had allowed him to decipher the symbols on the discs. This reasoning didn’t wash with many scholars. He resigned from his position at the academy and sought refuge in Japan. He apparently died not long after relocating there.

The Theories Of Vyacheslav Zaitsev

Russia expressed great interest in the stones, in particular, a Russian scientist named Vyacheslav Zaitsev. Zaitsev was more open to Tsum Um Nui’s investigation into the stones and even republished his work. Upon receiving disks to conduct his own tests on, Zaitsev discovered that the stone’s compositions contained some of the hardest known properties known to man. He also found high concentrations of metals such as cobalt. This led him to theorize that it would have been very difficult for primitive man to have etched the grooves or symbols into them – particularly given the equally primitive tools they would have had at their disposal.

He further found the stones to be electrically charged when he performed oscillograph tests on them. They vibrated in a way that suggested they have “functioning” use. Indeed their appearance was that of a standard long play vinyl record.

Sputnick magazine also covered these findings, in doing so making the knowledge of them leak into the wider mainstream.

Huilong And The Village Of Dwarves?

The stories that the alien beings had interbred with the local population seemed to take on a little more weight when the mountainous village of Huilong appeared to be populated by dwarves. Although thought by most to be a complete work of fiction, the 1978 book “Sungods In Exile” by David Gamon claimed to be a true account of a recent expedition where living alien descendants still resided.

Gamon told the story of Dr. Karyl Robin-Evans and his 1974 journey to the Baian-Kara Ula Mountains. According to the story, the eccentric scientist came upon a tribe of people called the Dropa. This tribe lived in the valleys of the mountains. Perhaps most interesting is that these people stood no more than four feet in height.

He went on to spend several months with the Dropa tribe. They taught him the basics of their language and spoke of their past and origins. Their story matched the translations made by Tsum Un Nui. Furthermore, was the added information that their home was a planet that revolved around Sirius.

Eventually, even Gamon himself stated that the book “is purely fiction” in an interview in 1988. By then, however, ten years of debate and theories had run wild and some brushed off Gamon’s admission.

Almost twenty years after “Sungods In Exile” release in November 1995 however, the Associated Press released an article that spoke of one-hundred and twenty “dwarfish beings” currently living in Huilong in the Sichuan Province of Central China. The site is no more than three miles from the Baian-Kara Ula Mountains.

No Denial Issued By Government

While the Chinese government didn’t confirm the existence of these dwarf-like beings in Huilong, they did not issue any kind of denial either.

In January 1997, the rampant dwarfism taking hold of this area of China had an explanation. At least according to a group of Chinese ethnologists. They claimed “a high concentration of mercury in the soil” must have found its way into the drinking water supply used by the tribe. Over many years this had led the entire tribe to be dwarfs.

Some described this notion as “nonsense” however. German toxicologist Dr. Norbert Felgenhauer stated that mercury would not alter human DNA in such a way. Furthermore, such an amount of mercury would have proven lethal to the tribe and they would have simply died out.

Reports of such dwarf-like beings living in the region continue and go back to the early 1900s. And while there very well might be a natural explanation, an in-depth and open study of the area needs to take place to separate the fact from the fiction.

Hoax Or Something Worth Investigating?

As with most claims of this kind their authenticity is open to debate.

While there is the single Polaroid photograph that shows two of the Dropa Stones, many cast doubt on this evidence. Taken by Austrian engineer Ernest Wegerer during a visit to Banpo museum in 1974, he claims that although he could take a single picture of them, the manager of the museum offered him no information about them.

More so, this picture of the stones does not show any of the mysterious hieroglyphs. Many scholars insist the picture is that of the much unearthed Bi Discs of China, known to be around five thousand years old. It is worth mentioning, however, that the Dropa Stones – if indeed they do exist – bear a remarkable similarity to the Phaistos Disc from ancient Crete. The Phaistos Disc also has strange hieroglyphs in a spiral. They remain untranslated.

When German scientist and researcher, Hartwig Hausdorf, visited the Banpo Museum in 1994 two decades after Wegerer and enquired about the stones, they were told that they had been ordered destroyed by “superiors” and they are not recognized as having existed.

Professor Chi Pu Tei also doesn’t seem to appear on any records in China other than when connected to the Dropa Stones stories.

A Recent Discovery Of An Unknown Species?

A recent journey into the Baian-Kara Ula Mountains by a Chinese team of explorers did yield some interesting finds though. Reports indicated that the team also discovered neatly arranged graves. These would contain remains almost identical to those described by Chi Pu Tei in 1938.

While this discovery – officially reported as an unknown species of ape – made things nice and neat for mainstream scholars, it was quickly pointed out that apes do not make graves as neatly as these. Nor do they prepare them in underground cave systems. The walls of the cave again found awash with cave art and paintings. These paintings seemed to have pictures of the sun, moon, and even galaxies. All are similar to the ones found in 1938 – certainly not the typical work of a primate.

One reporter covering the recent discovery remarked that “the Chinese did not know what they had found!”

Or maybe they did! And like the stones that are seemingly and systematically being destroyed, their find was also subject to such suppression.

Check out the documentary below that looks in a little more detail at the mystery surrounding the Dropa Stones.