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Saitou Hajime
08-12-2005, 12:18 AM
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http://img.epochtimes.com/i6/508042832628.jpg

http://img.epochtimes.com/i6/508042900628.jpg

A photo of two peculiar dragon-shaped objects taken from a plane flying over Tibet’s Himalayas piqued many users’ interest when displayed on a Chinese website. The photographer is an amateur.
On June 22, 2004, the photographer went to Tibet’s Amdo region to attend the Qinghai-to-Xizang Railroad laying ceremony, and then took a plane from Lhasa to fly back inland. When flying over the Himalaya’s, he accidentally caught these two "dragons" in a picture that he took. He called these two objects "the Tibet dragons."

Looking at the photo, these two objects appear to have the characteristics of crawling creatures: The bodies seem to be covered by scales, the backs have spine-like protuberances, and also they have gradually thinning rear ends. Although the photo caught only a portion of the entire scene, it was sufficient create the appearance of two gigantic dragons flying in the clouds.

This photo, shown on some websites such as post.baidu.com and other forums, aroused the website visitors’ curiosity. One person commented, “No wonder that China is the homeland of the dragon! Nature is truly mysterious and powerful, it can always produce spectacular sights beyond people's expectations.”

“Is it really true? Is it possible there is an ancient civilization that we don’t know about is preserved in places that are sparsely populated?”

“It really looks like the dragons in fables, and I really hope it is.”

Certainly, most website visitors hoped that someone could confirm the authenticity of the dragons in the photo.

Photo of dragons taken from an airplane above the Himalayas. (www.dajiyuan.com (http://www.d12world.com/board/links.php?url=http://www.dajiyuan.com))




In Chinese fairy tales, the dragon is a kind of rare heavenly creature. Fables say that it can conceal or reveal itself. It ascends to heaven in the spring breeze and dives and hides in deep water in the autumn wind. It can promote clouds and bring about rain. It also became the symbol of imperial authority later on; all emperors of previous dynasties self-designated as dragons, utensils were also decorated with dragons.

Culturally, the dragon is the Chinese ancestors' totem. Nearly all races in China had fables and stories with dragons as the main subject, such as dragon boat races, the dragon lantern dance to celebrate holidays, sacrificial offerings to the dragons to implore timely wind and rain for good crops.

Whether this kind of creature really exists is still an unsolved riddle. In the previous dynasties in China, there had been many documents recording eyewitness accounts of magical dragons. The most amazing events are the various "falling dragons," dragons that suddenly fell to the ground under peculiar circumstances, and were witnessed by many. A relatively recent tale occurred in the puppet Manchuria regime in August, 1944. A black dragon fell to the ground at the Chen Family’s Weizi Village, about 9.4 miles northwest of Zhaoyuan County, on the south shore of the Mudan River (the old name of a section of Songhua River) in Heilongjiang province. The black dragon was on the verge of death. The eyewitness said that this creature had a horn on its head, scales covering its body, and had a strong fishy smell that attracted numerous flies.

The records from previous dynasties also mentioned the connection between the emergence of these kinds of mysterious creatures, “dragons,” and the transition of dynasties on earth. The appearance of Tibet’s magical dragon invites our curiosity and imagination."

Dead Sexy Vocab
08-12-2005, 12:21 AM
If it isn't 'shopped, then my dreams have come true.

hapacheese
08-12-2005, 12:24 AM
Look like cloud formations to me =\

Dead Sexy Vocab
08-12-2005, 12:26 AM
Look like cloud formations to me =\

Look at the SECOND PICTURE.

hapacheese
08-12-2005, 12:29 AM
I did. And I've seen cloud formations like that before =\

Basically, a formation sort of like this:
http://brazil.homelinux.org/~gallery/albums/Tony_bike-trail/wispy_clouds.thumb.jpeg

Mixed with this:

http://www.glengormcastle.co.uk/Media/glengorm-gallery/gallery-images/29.jpg

Saitou Hajime
08-12-2005, 12:36 AM
I don't think it's shopped, or clouds. One explanation may be glaciers (I saw that explanation on another forum), and they look slightly like that... but eh, I hope it's real haha. Doubt it though.

RDClip
08-12-2005, 12:42 AM
They don't look real to me. Nowadays, it is so easy to make a fake picture anyway.

AssButt.
08-12-2005, 12:45 AM
Faked picture, or clouds. Probably a combination of both.

Loc
08-12-2005, 12:51 AM
Looks a bit weird to me but I'd love it if dragons were really alive now :D

Dead Sexy Vocab
08-12-2005, 01:29 AM
I think the dragons were preferrably set in China, because they're balancing the country's ever-growing population crisis.

Now that they're gone, China is the most populated country in the world.

Zaysho
08-12-2005, 01:39 AM
Why do I keep thinking those pictures are screenshots from a movie? Must be the black bar at the side with the slight line running down next to it.

But anyway, it would be great if they really did exist now. But I doubt they would. They probably went the way of the dinosaurs all those millions of years ago.

EDIT:
Now that I look at the second picture VERY, VERY closely, I think hapacheese may be right about it being clouds. You sorta think they're scales, but they do look more like a cloud formation.

Iekleane
08-12-2005, 02:04 AM
Cloud or not I would prefer dragons stayed dead. The though of a giant reptilian beast big enough to kill and eat me without even trying doesn't really appeal to me.

Shadowknight
08-16-2005, 04:03 AM
Actally, in a painting of St. George vs. the Dragon the dragon was probably about the height of a horse with an extremely long tail. Probably still weighed around 800 pounds going by the picture, though.

Kaji
08-16-2005, 04:09 AM
As someone else pointed out on another board...

What Chinese in their right mind would sit there and shoot only two pictures if they sighted a dragon? If they're real then there'd have been at least 50 pics, even with just one person doing the shooting...

Rogue_7
08-16-2005, 04:24 AM
yeah, that is certainly a glacier.

Kustom
08-16-2005, 04:42 AM
Yeah, I don't really buy the Dragon-are-still-alive thing either...

But what's fascinating is that the Dragon is a mythical animal whose reputation far extend the borders of China. Almost every culture has a reference to some kind of giand lizard, such as in St. George's legend... I really wonder where it comes from... Maybe from various culture discovering dinosaur remains? Or spotting a rare animal, like a giant snake or a crocodile, or a komodo dragon? Or a real animal (that would have happened to leave no fossils anywhere... mmm)

Keep in mind that legends always exagerate things... Did you know that the Bible's Behemoth in fact describes the hippopotamus? I find it funny... But what might the Leviathan be???

Behemoth and Leviathan (http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=k3o4ibc3f9ij?method=4&dsname=Wikipedia+Images&dekey=Behemoth.jpg&gwp=8&sbid=lc02b&linktext=%3Cimg%20src%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fcontent.an swers.com%2Fmain%2Fcontent%2Fwp%2Fen%2F5%2F55%2FBe hemoth.jpg%22%20alt%3D%22Behemoth%20and%20Leviatha n%2C%20an%20engraving%20by%20William%20Blake%22%20 height%3D%22279%22%20width%3D%22200%22%3E)

Oh, and for the record, I don't see how the poor Chinese guy could have made the plane stop for him to take 50 pictures... Ask the pilot "Hey buddy, could you circle around that cloud for a few minutes? Kinda looks like a dragon..." I think not... :(

decswxaqz
08-16-2005, 08:37 AM
Glacier or cliff edges. Besides the fact they converge to a single point. If it was two dragons the points wouldn't converge as well as they have since two tails or heads can't become one =/.
Nice picture though.

Y.T.
08-16-2005, 11:30 AM
Definitely Glacier. Just proves some Chinese are waay to gullible.
You know, the ice is heavier as it moves down the valley!
And, it periodically thaws and freezes!
So, cracks appear in it, perpendicular to the
the direction it slides down..


Ever heard about Megalania Prisca.. ? that was a 6-7-9 meter monitor? not sure lizard that lived in Australia before the people came there and wiped them out. (or, dingoes, or climatic changes).

Besides, large Crocodiles are pretty awesome.

Saitou Hajime
08-16-2005, 11:33 AM
I think it's not that they're gullible, it's just that they want the dragons of legend to be real so badly.

Myrsilus
08-16-2005, 11:38 AM
I know I do. I wanna ride a dragon into the sky.

Seriously, though... I have a feeling that some sort of "dragon" may have existed in the past... but sometimes I lose my hope on this since the past is extremely exaggerated at times... a lot of times. Just the legends are so wide-spread, you have to wonder. i don't think those are dragons, though.

Y.T.
08-16-2005, 11:51 AM
The solution to dragons is the ZSU-23-4. Is it not?
I mean, giant flying man eating things. Definitely not something you want to
come to visit?

Dragons, from a biological standpoint , would not be able to fly..
Too big. Though, if we try really hard , we can possibly build a dragon one
day. An artificial intelligence, with some sort of very great battery, and an ornithopter for that. One flamethrower. Some claws.
(or, powered by a nuclear reactor? Hard to make those things small..and safe)

Definitely not capable of flying very high.. besides.

Besides, dragons suck!
Ever heard about Project Pluto.
That would flatten a dragon any time of the day!

DJEvan
08-16-2005, 11:55 AM
pooh, if it were dragons those scales would've been green yes? :p

Myrsilus
08-16-2005, 11:56 AM
The flying on a dragon thing was a joke. And I really don't know how to pilot aircrafts, so I'm screwed there. Not really looking forward to taking the effort to fly on one, either.

And I never said I wanted them to exist right now. I was talking about the legends of the past. I'm not really ecstatic on the idea of being swooped up and carried off to be eaten.

Edit: The dragon could be any color. Purple even. With polka dots and a joint in its snout.

Pete
08-16-2005, 11:59 AM
Dragons could fly, but their wingspan would have to be enormous to lift them...

I agree on it being just a glacial formation of some sort, because seen from that altitude that'd make the dragon at least a mile long if that was what it was.

DJEvan
08-16-2005, 11:59 AM
That'll be one Funky dragon...

Myrsilus
08-16-2005, 12:03 PM
Oh for sure man. But it'd be one funky ride, too, eh?

I'd love to believe dragons were real at one point, but that's because that's my fantasy side coming out. Just knowing things like that could have existed would be a nice thing.

DJEvan
08-16-2005, 12:15 PM
oh yeah, like that cheetah that was in Harold & Kumar goes to white castle.

yes no doubt dragons being real will be nice, but well, just like the loch ness monster, we'll never know in our lifetimes.

and i think i remember these was this newspaper which usually reports on such wierd sightings/unusual stuff. can't remember the name of it already but i remember reading about the loch ness monster and its 'kid' dying in an article. Looking back now, i think it was a pic of a decompsed whale washed up onto the beach.

Myrsilus
08-16-2005, 12:20 PM
Hah. That cheetah was awesome.

We probably won't ever know for sure, but I like to dream a little. Not gonna hurt me.

Not sure I could ever believe anything pertaining to Nessie since the evidence that it may have existed has been shot down. That thing in the paper probably was a decomposing whale or else there would have been more to say about it.

Speaking of dead whales... Ever see the video of this big whale that washed ashore and these idiots thought it'd be a good idea to set explosives around it so they could get rid of it? Classic. Raining whale blubber and stink everywhere.

DJEvan
08-16-2005, 12:26 PM
think i heard about it, it exploded and the blubber was flaming and alot of people got hurt?
the one i read about was of this whale that was washed ashore in Taiwan and some inland jerks decided they wanted to study it so had a shipping company haul that thing up to their lab. On the way (along a very busy street i might add) the gases in the whale got too much and the thing exploded all over the street. yeeeuch.

Y.T.
08-16-2005, 12:28 PM
Well, but their bones would have to be made of some
stuff that nature uses not, like titanium.

After all, you know that we can't run faster than
say 50 klicks per hour, because the tendons in
our legs are not strong enough.

There are limits to what carbon based biological life can
accomplish.

Myrsilus
08-16-2005, 12:36 PM
Yeah I'm pretty aware of our limitations as I push myself to great limits when I train. Pretty sure we'd be screwed.

I think some people may have been hurt when the debris came down, but it wasn't anything too bad. Cars, however, took a hell of a beating. Huge portions of blubber just came crashing down and crushed some cars. And then probably the worst part is that the stench of decomposition spread through the entire beach. It was horrendous. They just made cleaning up even harder by trying to set off explosives.

Your story is pretty hilarious, though. Whale all over a city street. You don't see that everyday.

Sedated
08-16-2005, 03:45 PM
The movie idea might be valid... I saw previews for the hobbit movie, and that might be from a movie like that.