It’s is something we’ve been hearing about for weeks now: a number of news outlets have carried the story of what literally could be described as rashes of unidentified luminescent objects, seen hovering in the skies near the border between the Asian countries of India and China. While theories exist, news outlets (particularly in India) have seemed to indicate that the country’s military is concerned about the presence of these objects, and what their true origin may be.

Others, however, have put forth the claim that these objects are simply mundane appearances of “Chinese Lanterns” (a famous, and very convenient “explanation” issued for the majority of UFO reports that emerge in recent years). But could there be something more to the stories of odd lights we’ve been hearing of in recent weeks? Are they truly the mere result of some mundane phenomenon, or might there be evidence of some technological presence present here?

The reports are indeed curious, and although conventional explanations can’t be ruled out, official studies seem to remain inconclusive in determining what kind of phenomenon, specifically, may be underlying these strange appearances. The craft in question have variously been described as luminous “orbs” or “lobes,” and are objects capable of emitting a glowing light at both night and daytime. According to a report featured at the World News Tomorrow Website, which referenced material that originally appeared in India Today, military officials in the East do seem to remain stumped by the objects and their curious appearances:

The lack of answers has caused more embarrassment than fear in military circles, India Today reported, amid concern that this could be a crude psychological operation by the Chinese or a sophisticated probe designed to test Indian readiness.”If there has been some sightings, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a technology demonstration by the Chinese, and the Chinese are very advanced,” said Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal, former Northern Army commander. “During my time, we didn’t have such sightings.”

Sightings of strange UFO craft in parts of China are nothing new, and for many years, descriptions of an entire host of odd, unidentified aircraft have been reported, amidst speculation that advanced new kinds of military craft may be in production and undergoing field testing. During the writing of my upcoming book The UFO Singularity (New Page Books, 2012), I collected a very unique story from a man named Andy (he asked that no further information be given), which detailed the appearance of a large, dark triangular object with rotating red, blue and green lights about the edges:

Andy and his company watched the object for a period that he believed could have been well over an hour, and although they observed it continuously during this period, never leaving the area where they had been when it first appeared, Andy nonetheless described this event as one of the most frightening experiences of his life. The object drifted more or less slowly overhead for a long while, and had at this point been observed for a long period of time; then, suddenly, the craft purportedly moved very quickly toward one end of the horizon, only to remove itself just as quickly to the other, beginning an erratic ascent in zigzag fashion, before propelling itself forward in a straight line at tremendous speed. According to Andy, the craft’s line of flight, paired with its tremendous speed, gave the appearance that its path had managed to visibly follow the curvature of the Earth itself.

As the Indian military has already surmised, are the appearances of craft like these really something secretive the Chinese have been hard at work perfecting, or is there another explanation? Author Mack Maloney argues in his book UFOs in Wartime that sightings of unidentified craft tend to increase during times of conflict; if indeed a case can be made here, this might lend itself to the sudden prevalence of UFOs near the Chinese border with India. But their underlying purpose in such tense airspace is nonetheless curious… should it be viewed a concerning, just as well?

In the Pacific Northwestern United States, the Chehalis Indians and other native tribes have often spoke of wild, hair-covered human-like creatures that inhabited the mountains around Harrison Lake and other remote regions throughout the US and Canada.

These creatures, later called “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch,” were believed to be one of countless colorful elements that peppered the native Chehalis tradition, first recorded by writers like J.W. Burns beginning in the 1940s. The Chehalis had a different take on the matter, though; they believed these creatures not only were very real, but that they were somehow related to the Chehalis, with some traditions even noting that the creatures spoke a very similar language which both parties could understand!

When considering such instances of “Cryptid Cousinry,” it is interesting to note that much like the Native American legends in the United States and Canada, there are similar stories involving a large, hairy primate seen in parts of China. Variously called “Yeren” or “Wild Man,” the creature is said to resemble a seven-foot tall orangutan, and has evoked enough interest over the years that a recent expedition was launched in an effort to discover, once and for all, whether the creature exists.

On Monday, Fox News reported on the merits of the expedition, as well as the financial troubles that surround such an undertaking:

Thirty years ago, China’s Academy of Science sent three teams of researchers looking for the mysterious creature. Those teams turned up surprising results: hair, excrement, footprints, and a possible ‘Wild Man’ sleeping nest. Alas, those findings weren’t conclusive so they are at it again.

This time around the members of the Hubei Wild Man Research Association are hoping to collect donations to help catch the legendary creature. They need $1.5 million to kick off the project.

Though he’s not exactly a cryptid himself (or is he…?), a man I’d gladly call a cousin nonetheless, Nick Redfern, was interviewed by FN for the piece. “A lot of monster stories can be traced back to myth and folk lore. What people don’t know is that in this instance we actually have the fossil record of a large ape-like creature that lived in that area over 300,000 years ago,” he said. In this statement, Redfern is referring to a massive ape, the Gigantopithecus, which some hominologists and anthropologists like the late Grover Krantz have suggested could have been an early relative of the modern Bigfoot. Though unlikely, there is also some possibility, as suggested by experts over the years, that Gigantopithecus walked upright; this is contested by most biologists, who say that it probably walked more like the apes and gorillas of today in a partial quadrupedal gate (i.e. knuckle walking).

Still, to me the mystery here is far deeper than the mere potential for a creature like Bigfoot to exist in China. In fact, this is only one small piece of a larger puzzle detailing a variety of ape-like creatures, as-yet unproven to exist to the liking of mainstream science. Curiously, reports stem not just from the US and China, but from virtually every corner of the world, describing these relic creatures that represent what, by all measures, could be called “the missing link.” Could it be that evidence of our ancestry does actually exist in relic specimens which, somehow, have existed in the smallest livable numbers, just beyond the fringes of civilization? Or, conversely, could the mystery of creatures like Bigfoot hold a deeper meaning, stemming from the human psyche?

Regardless of how we choose to interpret this, our fascination with such creatures clearly represents an association with our ancestry on this planet (albeit somewhat detached). Whatever the answer to this riddle may ultimately be, it will no doubt prove to have more to do with our own species than we realize.

Typically, having a run-in with a UFO is a chance encounter, having more to do with being at the right place at the right time rather than knowing where to look.

However, occasionally reports of alleged UFOs appearing consistently in a region, and even hovering in plain site, do occur. No greater instance of this in recent times exists than the sudden dramatic appearances of strange airborne objects over China in the last few weeks.

Researcher Michael Cohen recently detailed one such UFO “mega event” at his popular All News Web UFO site:

“A UFO event involving hundreds of witnesses took place In the city of Huaian in China on 27 February at 8pm. The event is currently being discussed vigorously by China’s hundreds of thousands of UFO enthusiasts, eagerly searching for that conclusive event or sighting that will prove for once and for all that we here on Earth are indeed being visited by aliens.”

Although area meteorologists offered the explanation that the “object” was actually a spotlight being reflected off a cloud bank, witnesses described the UFO as a “classically shaped flying saucer,” witnessed by hundreds.

Now, evoking images of a similar object some claim appeared over the Kremlin in Russia only weeks ago, a video filmed in China and subsequently uploaded to YouTube purports to show what Cohen calls “the clearest UFO ever filmed in China.” Below is the video in question… is this a computer manipulation, a “kite” as some have suggested, or something truly out of this world?

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Chinese Communist Party often relies on the modern skylines of Beijing and Shanghai to show off their “progress” to the west. What they don’t show however are areas that lack some of the basic buildings essential to the community, schools for example.

In 1994, the residents of the Miao Village, in China’s Guizhou province, took matters into their own hands and constructed a school.

They certainly picked an interesting spot.

Photos by Reuters

Reminds me of Little Lamplight from Fallout 3.

via [Oddity Central]