Shambhala
and the UFO Connection
Ancient Documentations of UFO's
and Evidence of
Alien Races Living on Earth During Ancient Times
Read a preview of the book 'In Search of Shambhala'
(1) An Overview of the Literature
"In various kinds of Asian and South Asian texts, we find references
to flying machines and aerial vehicles. Chinese and Indian stories
tell of peoples or individual artisans who constructed devices for
travelling through the air. The stories take many different forms,
including quite fanciful romances. Others present a picture of
inventors taking pains to understand the basic principles of flight,
and crafting machines of wood to achieve this goal." - Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private
Descriptions of Flying Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean,
Indian, and Other Texts"
The word vimana is purportedly derived from
vamana: "he who is able
at three strides to take measure of the entire earth and heavens."
"In the Vedic literature of India, there are many descriptions of
flying machines that are generally called
Vimanas. These fall into
two categories:
(1) manmade craft that resemble airplanes and fly
with the aid of birdlike wings
(2) unstreamlined structures
that fly in a mysterious manner and are generally not made by human
beings
The machines in category (1) are described mainly in
medieval, secular Sanskrit works dealing with architecture,
automata, military siege engines, and other mechanical contrivances.
Those in category (2) are described in ancient works such as the Rg
Veda, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Puranas, and they have
many features reminiscent of UFOs." - Richard L. Thompson,
Alien Identities - Ancient Insights into
Modern UFO Phenomena
"One time while King Citaketu was traveling in outer space on a
brilliantly effulgent airplane given to him by Lord Vishnu, he saw
Lord Siva..."
"The arrows released by Lord Siva appeared like fiery beams
emanating from the sun globe and covered the three residential
airplanes, which could then no longer be seen." - Srimad Bhagasvatam,
Sixth Canto, Part 3
"The so-called 'Rama Empire' of Northern India and Pakistan
developed at least fifteen thousand years ago on the Indian
sub-continent and was a nation of many large, sophisticated cities,
many of which are still to be found in the deserts of Pakistan,
northern, and western India. Rama... was ruled by 'enlightened
Priest-Kings' who governed the cities.
"The seven greatest capital cities of Rama were known in classical
Hindu texts as 'The Seven Rishi Cities'. According to ancient Indian
texts, the people had flying machines which were called 'vimanas'.
The ancient Indian epic describes a Vimana as a double- deck,
circular aircraft with portholes and a dome, much as we would
imagine a flying saucer. It flew with the "speed of the wind" and
gave forth a 'melodious sound'. There were at least four different
types of Vimanas; some saucer shaped, others like long cylinders
('cigar shaped airships')." - D. Hatcher Childress,
"Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology"
-
In The Anti-Gravity Handbook
"An aerial chariot, the
Pushpaka, conveys many people to the capital
of Ayodhya. The sky is full of stupendous flying-machines, dark as
night,but picked out by lights with a yellowish glare." - Mahavira of Bhavabhuti
- (A Jain text of the eighth century culled from older texts and
traditions)
"The Vedas, ancient Hindu poems, thought to be the oldest of all the
Indian texts, describe Vimanas of various shapes and sizes: the
'ahnihotra-vimana' with two engines, the 'elephant-vimana' with more
engines, and other types named after the kingfisher, ibis and other
animals." - D. Hatcher Childress, "Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology"
-
In The Anti-Gravity Handbook
"Now Vata's chariot's greatness! Breaking goes it,
And Thunderous is its noise, To heaven it touches,
Makes light lurid [a red fiery glare], and whirls dust upon the
earth." - Rig-Veda (Vata is the Aryan god of wind.)
"Taoist tales often tell of adepts or immortals flying through the
air. The xian were immortals capable of flight under their own
divine power. They were said to be feathered, and a term that has
been used for Taoist priests is yu ke, meaning 'feathered guest'.
The fei tian, which might be translated as 'flying immortals', also
appear in early tales, adding to the numbers of airborne beings in
the Chinese mythological corpus."
"The Chinese tales of fei che,
flying vehicles, exhibit the first
understanding, perhaps, that humans would fly only with some kind of
technological apparatus. A hymn written in the second century B.C.
speaks of deity appearing in chariots drawn by flying dragons."
- Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private
Descriptions of Flying Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean,
Indian, and Other Texts"
(2) The Mahabharata
"The more typical
Vimanas had flight characteristics resembling
those reported for UFOs, and the being associated with them were
said to possess powers similar to those presently ascribed to UFO
entities. An interesting example of a vimana is the flying machine
which Salva, an ancient Indian king, acquired from Maya Danava, an
inhabitant of a planetary system called Taltala." - Richard L. Thompson,
Alien Identities - Ancient Insights into
Modern UFO Phenomena
"The cruel Salva had come mounted on the Saubha chariot that can go
anywhere, and from it he killed many valiant Vrishni youths and
evilly devastated all the city parks." - Mahabharata
"The Mahabharata, a poem of vast length and complexity, achieved its
present form in the second century A.D." - Reader's Digest Mysteries of the Unexplained
"It is significant that Salva asked for a vehicle that could not be
destroyed by Devas, Asuras, Gandharvas, Uragas, or Raksasas. These
are all powerful races of humanoid beings that were openly active on
the earth or in its general environs in Salva's time, and so
naturally he wanted to be able to defend himself against them.
"Salva's vehicle is described as an iron city, and thus it must have
been metallic in appearance and quite large....Many Vedic vimanas
are described as flying cities, and one is reminded of the very
large 'mother-ships' that are sometimes discussed in UFO reports."
- Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities - Ancient Insights into
Modern UFO Phenomena
"The airplane occupied by Salva was very mysterious. It was so
extraordinary that sometimes many airplanes would appear to be in
the sky, and sometimes there were apparently none. Sometimes the
plane was visible and sometimes not visible, and the warriors of the
Yadu dynasty were puzzled about the whereabouts of the peculiar
airplane. Sometimes they would see the airplane on the ground,
sometimes flying in the sky, sometimes resting on the peak of a hill
and sometimes floating on the water. The wonderful airplane flew in
the sky like a whirling firebrand - it was not steady even for a
moment." - Bhaktivedanta, Swami Prabhupada, Krsna
"An Air Force RB-47, equipped with electronic countermeasure (ECM)
gear and manned by six officers, was followed by an unidentified
object for a distance of well over 700 mi. and for a time period of
1.5 hr., as it flew from Mississippi, through Louisiana and Texas
and into Oklahoma. The object was, at various times, seen visually
by the cockpit crew as an intensely luminous light, followed by
ground-radar and detected on ECM monitoring gear aboard the RB-47.
Of special interest in this case are several instances of
simultaneous appearances and disappearances on all three of these
physically distinct 'channels', and rapidity of maneuvers beyond the
prior experience of the air crew." - July 17, 1957 sighting reported in the journal Astronautics and
Aeronautics
"It is significant that Salva dropped such things as snakes, stones,
and tree trunks from his Vimana. There is no mention of bombs, and
it would seem that even though Salva possessed a remarkable flying
machine, he did not have the kind of aerial weapons technology used
in World War II. He did, however, have a quite different technology,
which could be used to affect the weather and produce whirlwinds,
thunderbolts, and hailstones." - Richard L. Thompson,
Alien Identities - Ancient Insights into
Modern UFO Phenomena
There is this account by the hero
Krishna that is suggestive of more
modern weapons.
As he takes to the skies in pursuit of
Salva:
"His Saubha clung to the sky at a league's length...He threw at me
rockets, missiles, spears, spikes, battle-axes, three-bladed
javelins, flame-throwers, without pausing....The sky...seemed to
hold a hundred suns, a hundred moons...and a hundred myriad stars.
Neither day nor night could be made out, or the points of compass."
- The Mahabharata
Later, when Saubha becomes invisible, Krishna relates:
"I quickly laid on an arrow, which killed by seeking out sound, to
kill them...All the Danavas [troops in Salva's army] who had been
screeching lay dead, killed by the blazing sunlike arrows that were
triggered by sound." - The Mahabharata
"But the Saubha itself has escaped the attack, and at last Krishna
hurls against it his 'favorite fire weapon', a discus having the
shape of the 'haloed sun'. Severed in two by the impact, the aerial
city falls down. "Salva himself is killed, and with his death this episode of The
Mahabharata comes to an end." - Reader's Digest Mysteries of the Unexplained
In another episode the fearful Agneya weapon, "a blazing missile of
smokeless fire" is unleashed by the hero Adwattan.
"Dense arrows of flame, like a great shower, issued forth upon
creation, encompassing the enemy....A thick gloom swiftly settled
upon the Pandava hosts. All points of the compass were lost in
darkness. Fierce winds began to blow. Clouds roared upward,
showering dust and gravel.
"Birds croaked madly...the very elements seemed disturbed. The sun
seemed to waver in the heavens. The earth shook, scorched by the
terrible violent heat of this weapon. Elephants burst into flame and
ran to and fro in a frenzy...over a vast area, other animals
crumpled to the ground and died. From all points of the compass the
arrows of flame rained continuously and fiercely."
"Gurkha, flying in his swift and powerful Vimana, hurled against the
three cities of the Vrishnis and Andhakas a single projectile
charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column
of smoke and flame as bright as the thousand suns rose in all its
splendour... An iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death,
which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the
Andhakas.... The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. The
hair and nails fell out; pottery broke without apparent cause, and
the birds turned white....After a few hours all foodstuffs were
infected.... To escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves
in streams to wash themselves and their equipment..." - The Mahabharata
"It would seem that The Mahabharata is describing an atomic war!
References like this one are not isolated; but battles, using a
fantastic array of weapons and aerial vehicles are common in all the
epic Indian books. One even describes a Vimana-Vailix battle on the
Moon! The above section very accurately describes what an atomic
explosion would look like and the effects of the radioactivity on
the population. Jumping into water is the only respite.
"When the Rishi City of
Mohenjo-Daro was excavated by archaeologists
in the last century, they found skeletons just lying in the streets,
some of them holding hands, as if some great doom had suddenly
overtaken them. These skeletons are among the most radioactive ever
found, on a par with those found at Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
"Furthermore, at Mohenjo-Daro, a well planned city laid on a grid,
with a plumbing system superior to those used in Pakistan and India
today, the streets were littered with 'black lumps of glass'. These
globs of glass were discovered to be clay pots that had melted under
intense heat! " - D. Hatcher Childress, "Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology"
-
In The Anti-Gravity Handbook
There is another account of such a weapon:
"Cuka, flying on board a high-powered
Vimana, hurled on to the
triple city a single projectile charged with all the power of the
universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame, as bright as
ten thousand suns, rose in all the splendor... When the Vimana
returned to Earth, it looked like a splendid block of antimony
resting on the ground." - Mausola Purva
An Examination of the Technology
(1) The Dreamlike Quality of Vimanas
"O King, this beautifully decorated airplane had been manufactured
by the demon Maya and was equipped with weapons for all types of
combat. It was inconceivable and indescribable. Indeed, it was
sometimes visible and sometimes not. Seated in this airplane under a
beautiful protective umbrella and being fanned by the best of
camaras, Maharaja Bai, surrounded by his captains and commanders,
appeared just like the moon rising in the evening, illuminating all
directions." - Swami Prabhupada Bhaktivedanta, Srimad Bhagavatam
"The Vedic universe is described as a product of maya, or illusion,
and it can be thought of as a universal virtual reality
system.....The role of the computer is played by a fundamental
energy called pradhana. This energy is activated by an expansion of
the Supreme known as Maha-Visnu, who acts as the universal
programmer. Thus activated pradhana produces subtle forms of energy,
and these in turn produce gross matter."
"Uma, the wife of Lord Siva, is also known as Maya Devi, or the
goddess in charge of the illusory energy. She is also the Mother
Goddess who has been worshipped all over the world by many different
names. Since Siva is Uma's husband, he is the master of illusion and
technology. Thus there is a natural connection between Lord Siva,
who Salva approached to obtain his Vimana, and Maya Danava, the
master of illusion who manufactured it." - Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities - Ancient Insights into
Modern UFO Phenomena
Many of properties of the Vimanas bring to mind the ephemeral nature
of UFO's and their seeming ability to defy the conventional laws of
physics. Carl Jung has remarked on the dreamlike quality of UFO's,
and somewhere, amidst the observation of bright lights and lost
time, the delineation between objective and subjective consciousness
appears to break down.
"Our research has found extensive similarities between UFO
encounters and religious and metaphysical mysticism, folklore,
shamans' trances, migraine attacks, and even the operations of the
creative imagination. Among the similarities are recurrent
image-constants, a basically consistent sequence of events, and the
unusual "peak experience" quality common to all. Also, very bizarre
incidents in abduction reports have parallels in these phenomena.
For example, the embarrassingly incredible "bodily dismemberment"
sometimes reported by abductees is a regular feature of shaman's
"death-rebirth" trances." - Alvin H. Lawson
Do
the Vimanas represent an ancient technology that utilizes the
forces of nature (such as transient geophysical electrical fields)
to effect human consciousness and alter the perception of reality?
Certainly there have been rumors of psychotronic devices, such as
those reported tested in the "M" Triangle area west of Moscow.
"There exists a natural phenomenon whose manifestations border on
both the physical and the mental. There is a medium in which human
dreams can be implemented, and this is the mechanism by which UFO
events are generated, needing no superior intelligence to trigger
them. This would explain the fugitivity of UFO manifestations, the
alleged contact with friendly occupants, and the fact that the
objects appear to keep pace with human technology and to use current
symbols." - Jacques Valleé
An early UFO report in 1929 (18 years before
Kenneth Arnold filed
his famous report which lead newspapers to coin the term "flying
saucers") may be instructive. In a valley in between Mongolia and
Tibet, a team of Norwegians and sherpas had just completed building
a shrine dedicated to
Shambhala. (To Tibetan lamas, Shambhala [which
means "quietude"] is a secret place of enlightenment in the northern
mountains.)
"On August fifth - something remarkable! We were in our camp in the
Kukunor district not far from the Humboldt Chain. In the morning
about half-past nine some of our caravaneers noticed a remarkably
big black eagle flying over us. Seven of us began to watch this
unusual bird. At this same moment another of our caravaneers
remarked, 'There is something far above the bird'. And he shouted in
his astonishment. We all saw, in a direction from north to south,
something big and shiny reflecting the sun, like a huge oval moving
at great speed. Crossing our camp the thing changed in its direction
from south to southwest. And we saw how it disappeared in the
intense blue sky. We even had time to take our field glasses and saw
quite distinctly an oval form with shiny surface, one side of which
was brilliant from the sun." - Nicholas Roerich, Altai-Himalaya
According to a lama, the shiny oval was a "Radiant form of Matter"
from Shambhala. It was, he said, a protecting force that was always
near but could not always be perceived. In Tibetan Buddhist belief
"matter is a development of thought, crystallized mental energy".
"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our
present thoughts build our like of tomorrow; our life is the
creation of our mind." - The Dhammapada
Students are taught to mentally visualize their tutelary god which
slowly takes on the same quasi-reality as a phantom monk. Under
experienced control such ephemeral creations of the mind, or tulpas,
can take many different forms such as man, animal, tree, rock, etc.
"Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of
playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its
maker's control....Tibetan magicians also relate cases in which the
tulpa is sent to fulfill a mission, but does not come back and
pursues its peregrinations as a half-conscious, dangerously
mischievous puppet. The same thing, it is said, may happen when the
maker of the tulpa dies before having dissolved it." - Alexandra David-Neel,
With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet
(3) Indian Technological Data
"There are ancient Indian accounts of manmade wooden vehicles that
flew with wings in the manner of modern airplanes. Although these
wooden vehicles were also called Vimanas, most Vimanas were not at
all like airplanes. " - Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities - Ancient Insights into
Modern UFO Phenomena
"According to ancient Sanskrit texts found a few years ago by
Westerners in a South Indian temple, Vimanas were open topped flying
devices, not strictly UFOs since they were restricted to the Earth's
atmosphere. Dr. Roberto Pinotti is an Italian scientist, and on the
12th of October 1988 was a speaker in the World Space Conference in
Bangalore, India. He referred to several Hindu texts and pointed out
that Indian gods and heroes fought in the skies using piloted
vehicles armed with weapons. These weapons consisted of seven
different types of mirrors and lenses which were used for offensive
and defensive purposes. The 'Pinjula Mirror' offered a form of
'visual shield' preventing the pilots from 'evil rays', and the
weapon named 'Marika' was used to shoot enemy aircraft. Dr. Pinotti
said that these weapons 'do not seem to be too different from what
we today call laser technology'.
"The vehicles themselves were made of special heat absorbing metals,
called 'Somaka, Soundalike and Mourthwika'. According to Dr.
Pinotti, the 'principles of propulsion as far as the descriptions
were concerned, might be defined as electrical and chemical, but
solar energy was involved as well.' Other scientists have put
forward the theory that the craft were driven by some sort of
mercury ion propulsion system. Dr. Pinotti concluded that the fact
that Vimanas were written about hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of
years ago, plus that they resembled modern UFOs would suggest that
India had a '...superior but forgotten civilization. In the light of
this, we think it will be better to examine the Hindu texts and
subject the descriptive models of Vimanas to more scientific
scrutiny'." - Nick Humphries, "UFO Guide"
"The Puspaku Car, that resembles the sun and belongs to my brother,
was brought by the powerful Ravan; that aerial and excellent car,
going everywhere at will, is ready for thee. That car, resembling a
bright cloud in the sky, is in the city of Lanka." - Ramayana
"According to the Dronaparva, part of the Mahabarata, and the
Ramayana, one Vimana described was shaped like a sphere and born
along at great speed on a mighty wind generated by mercury. It moved
like a UFO, going up, down, backwards and forwards as the pilot
desired. In another Indian source, the Samar, Vimanas were 'iron
machines, well-knit and smooth, with a charge of mercury that shot
out of the back in the form of a roaring flame'. Another work called
the Samaranganasutradhara describes how the vehicles were
constructed. It is possible that mercury did have something to do
with the propulsion, or more possibly, with the guidance system.
Curiously, Soviet scientists have discovered what they call 'age-old
instruments used in navigating cosmic vehicles' in caves in Turkestan and the
Gobi Desert. The 'devices' are hemispherical
objects of glass or porcelain, ending in a cone with a drop of
mercury inside." - D. Hatcher Childress, "Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology"
-
In The Anti-Gravity Handbook
"G. R.. Josyer, director of the International Academy of Sanskrit
Research in Mysore, India, stated on September 25, 1952, that Indian
manuscripts several thousands of years old dealt with the
construction of various types of aircraft for civil aviation and for
warfare.
"The specific manuscript on aeronautics included plans for three
types of Vimanas (aircraft), the Rukma, Sundara, and Shakuna. Five
hundred stanzas of an ancient text treat of such intricate details
as the choice and preparation of metals which would be suitable for
various parts of Vimanas of different types."
"There were eight chapters...that provided plans for the
construction of aircraft that flew in the air, traveled under water,
or floated pontoon-like on the water's surface. Some stanzas told of
the qualifications and training of pilots." - Brad Steiger,
Worlds Before Our Own
"Indeed, there are a remarkable number of stories which involve the
construction of flying machines. Within some of these stories, we
find an interesting clue as to their possible source. In another set
of eleventh-century narratives, the Brihat Kath Álokasamgraha,
carpenters are involved in the attempt to construct a flying
vehicle. When asked by Rumanavat to build a machine which can fly,
they reply that such aerial devices are only known to the Yavanas,
i.e., the Greeks.
"This is repeated again in the same story, with the suggestion that
it is kept as a secret by them. Another romance, the 'Deeds of King
Harsha', from the seventh century, speaks of a flying machine made
by a Greek who had been taken prisoner. Laufer notes that the term
for the aerial machine in this tale is 'a mechanical vehicle
(yantray na) which travels on the surface of the air'."
Clive Hart, The Prehistory of Flight (Berkeley, 1985)
"chronologically lists references in various Western texts to flying
machines [pp.195-197 et ff.] It is notable that most of these early
references to flight in these sources involve the use of man-made
wings. There are no discussions of more complex man-carrying aerial
vehicles as we found in the Chinese, Korean, and Indian tales."
- Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private
Descriptions of Flying Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean,
Indian, and Other Texts"
(4) Chinese and Korean Flying Devices
The earliest written Chinese account of flying machines describes
them as taking place in remote antiquity. The following selections
are from Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private
Descriptions of Flying Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean,
Indian, and Other Texts", which I am able to quote with the kind
permission of the author.
"The Chi Kung people were good at making mechanical devices for
killing [all kinds of] birds. They could also make aerial carriages
which, with a fair wind, traveled great distances. In the time of
the emperor Thang [mid-second millennium B.C.], a westerly wind
carried such a car as far as Yüchow, whereupon Thang had the car
taken to pieces, not wishing his own people to see it. Ten years
later there came an easterly wind (of sufficient strength), and then
the car was reassembled and the visitors were sent back to their own
country, which lies 40,000 li beyond the Jade Gate." - Chang Hua, "Po Wu Chih" ('Record of Investigation of Things') in
the Po Wu Chih
Like the devices described in the Indian
Brihat Kath Álokasamgraha,
Chinese flying machines are often described as being made of wood
and fly according to straightforward (although not understood)
mechanical principles. The following accounts also postdate the
spread of Hellenistic culture.
"On the southern peak of Tian Lau mountain, a long time ago, Lu Ban
carved some wood into a crane which then flew 700 li. Later, the
bird was placed on the west peak of the northern mountain. Emperor
Wu [157-87 B.C.] ordered his people to go take it, but then it flew
back to the southern peak. Often, when it looks like it is about to
rain, then the bird's wings begin to move, flapping as if it is
about to fly." - Shu I Chi
"By the third century A.D., we read of people constructing a flying
vehicle." - Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical
Mythology: Private Descriptions of Flying Machines as Found
in Early Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Other Texts"
"Some use the inner part of the jujube [=date] tree to make a flying
vehicle, using ox leather straps fastened to encircling blades, so
as to propel this machine. Some others have the idea of making five
snakes, six dragons, and three oxen [these are kites in the shape of
these animals] encounter the 'hard wind', and so ride it (i.e., the
vehicle), rising up 40 li. [That region] is called the Tai Qing
('Area of Upper Air'). In the Tai Qing region, the air is very hard,
and can lift people. The Master says that a yuan [this word can mean
'kite' or 'hawk'] flying, spiraling higher and higher, only needs to
straighten out its two wings and not flap them any more to move
forward, because it is riding on the hard wind. The dragons when
they first rise up, step on the clouds, going to 40 li [altitude],
then fly by themselves. This account comes from the [Taoist] adepts,
and is recounted, being handed down to ordinary people, yet the
common people are not really able to understand it." - Ko Hung
(A.D. 283-343), Pao Pu Tzu
"...The picture we get of the device is quite ambiguous, with ox
leather straps somehow tied to a circle of swords or blades, or
blades [moving?] around. The motion of the blades, though, is never
really clearly described in the passage, nor is the overall
configuration of the vehicle. We are left with the nonetheless
interesting fact that there is a description of a mechanical device
intended for flying."
"This is precisely what is relevant in these stories to the
historian of science: the fact that a romantic tale or story should
employ a mechanical device and at times even include a description
of its construction or function. This fact does not necessarily mean
that the stories contain elements of fact, or actual records of some
now-lost technology." - Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin,
"Mechanical Mythology: Private Descriptions of Flying
Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean, Indian, and
Other Texts"
The Koreans have accounts of similar
flying machines, although of
much more recent derivation.
"There is another story related to these [ways of naming]. Jung
Pyung Goo was the inventor of an airplane in Choson [Korea]. During
the Im Jin War [between Korea and Japan, 1592-1597], when Jin Joo
fortress was in danger, he rescued his friend by an airplane, flying
30 miles away, and then landing. The spinning top with which
children play, 'Ping Goo', whirls around on the ground as it is
whipped by them, and then lifts up into the air. This is like Jung
Pyung Goo's riding of the airplane, moving up and down. So the name
'Pyung Goo' was given [to the top], changed to 'Ping Goo'." -
Kwon Tokkyu in a 1923 Korean text
Where were such machines manufactured?
"Several thousand of li from China, in what is today Russia... it is
said that the people were able to manufacture wheels for a flying
machine. Each flying machine required four wheels in all.
Furthermore, legend has it that they were able to fly one thousand
li in one day. The people of Xi Wu [?] also produced a flying
machine, and utilizing a bellows [usually] used in smelting, a
pulley hauling device, and other methods, enabled the flying machine
to move. The machine was able to float in the air and move freely
and without obstacle on rivers or land. During the dangerous times
of war and turmoil, this vehicle could be used to ward off attacks
from the enemy." - Yi Kyu Gyong, "A Discriminating Look at the Possibilities of
Flying Machines" in A Compilation of Previously Uncollected Texts
from Throughout the World
"What caused the creation of this separate category of 'technical
myths' is not entirely clear. One what might well ask why the some
of the stories ever entered into discussions of machines at all. Why
didn't stories of winged beings and levitating immortals simply
continue? Why did this separate category of humans in flying
machines arise? Perhaps there is a connection to the development of
kites, which occurred at a period in China preceding many of these
tales of 'aerial carriages'. Kites gave people a view of flight made
practical: structures made of bamboo, wood, cloth, and paper,
man-made devices actually airborne. There are even stories of kites
large enough to hold individuals, a not implausible scenario."
- Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology:
Private Descriptions of Flying Machines as Found in Early
Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Other Texts"
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