If you've ever been to China or even eaten at a Chinese restaurant, you know the dragon
is huge business.
But what makes it so unique that it warrants all of this attention?
It turns out that the Chinese dragon is much more than meets the eye.
In Chinese culture, Chinese dragons are powerful and beneficent emblems with alleged control
over aquatic phenomena, such as calling rain during a drought.
Dragons appear in mythology, festivals, astrology, art, names, and idioms throughout China.
Everyone knows dragons don't really exist, but a recent odd find in China may change
everything.
What exactly is this recent finding, and why is everyone so excited about it?
In today's video, we explore a bizarre case of dragon bones discovered in China that will
shock you!
The Chinese term for "dragon" appears on the very first samples of Chinese writing, which
date back roughly 3,500 years.
When the Chinese first entered history with the revolutionary development of written records,
most writing was ceremonial in character.
To mention a few, the king's diviners requested of the oracle whether a hunt would be successful,
if an enemy state had laid a curse on the court, or if rain would fall.
Depending on the time, the oracular exchange was then written on animal bone, tortoise
shells, or metal vessels.
These old relics tell us that the dragon did exist in some form and what it looked like.
And why do you need to know this?
Well, 1.3 billion Chinese claim to be "descendants of the dragon."
China is one of the world's oldest living civilizations, dating back around 5,000 years.
In that sense, the dragon represents not only China's heritage but also its astonishing
rise to modern triumph.
So, in a sense, knowing the dragon means knowing China.
Yandi (a legendary tribal leader) was claimed to have been born thousands of years ago as
a result of his mother's telepathic encounter with a powerful dragon.
They opened the precursor to Chinese civilization with the help of the dragon and in alliance
with Huangdi (a famous tribal leader and, according to some accounts, the grandson of
a dragon).
As a result, "emperors" Yandi and Huangdi were the Chinese people's ancestors.
Before ascending to heaven, the two emperors are fabled to have been immortalized as dragons.
With the passage of time, the Chinese came to refer to themselves as "descendants of
Yandi and Huangdi," as well as "descendants of dragons."
Now, just recently, residents of a Chinese town announced that they had found the skeleton
of a deceased "dragon," and they assert that the peculiar remains are evidence that the
legendary beast does in fact exist.
The unusually lengthy skeleton is at least 60ft long, with two incongruous small 'arms'
poking out in the center and a head that resembles a cow skull.
It was discovered in a field near Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, China.
Traditional Chinese dragons, unlike dragons depicted in Western mythology, have no wings
and fly by 'swimming' through the air, similar to how snakes slither along the earth.
The bizarre skeleton's anatomy convinced some locals that the remains could indeed be those
of a dragon.
Several witnesses at the scene captured video of scores of villagers encircling the purported
dragon remains.
The townspeople are unsure what to make of the skeleton, but a few superstitious residents
appear to believe they are looking at the bones of the mythological creature.
Netizens on Chinese social media speculated that the rib-like skeleton was placed there
on purpose, possibly as a prop for a movie, but no one has come forward to substantiate
these claims.
According to one source, the skeleton resembled a cinematic prop consisting of cow or sheep
bones.
Although orthodox scientists are unconvinced that the skeleton recovered belonged to a
real dragon, the media frenzy around its discovery suggests that many people around the world,
not only in China, believe in the existence of dragons.
Dragons may be seen throughout history and in various cultures, which is remarkable because
some of these cultures never met or had contact with one another.
As a result, the persistence of dragon stories and cultures across different folkloric contexts
is most likely no coincidence.
Dragons are one of the more fantastic creatures to examine in mythology, folklore, and stories
since they are so prevalent in Western culture.
In several Bible passages, Satan is described as a dragon.
They are considered to be one of the most powerful animal gods in Aboriginal mythology.
Dragons appear in Ethiopian imagery, and one of the most remarkable aspects is that images
of what a dragon should look like have remained fairly consistent over time.
What's truly interesting is that, when we consider all of the various elements that
may have contributed to the dragon legends.
They're all often portrayed as reptilian in nature, with scales and claws and often bat-like
membranous wings, a long reptile tale with a strange structure or a spike or stinger
on the end, incredibly sharp teeth, the capacity to breathe fire, we must evaluate the likelihood
that at least part of these Dragon Legends are based on some form of extraordinary and
possibly unknown species.
Is it likely that the countless dragons depicted in legends all around the world were not just
mythical, but also real?
Perhaps the answer can be found by looking into some of the historical accounts in which
people claim to have had experiences with real dragons.
Encounters with dragons in bygone eras were not regarded myths or tall tales; they were
written down and documented as historical truth, and they were told as true stories
of encounters with enigmatic Blood and Flesh animals.
Saint John of Damascus records an event from the 8th century in which the Roman army is
taken aback when a gigantic beast described as a dragon rises up behind them.
They fight and eventually slay the creature, skin it, and send the skin back to Rome.
People took dragons quite seriously until the early modern age; Worms, Germany, is famous
for its dragon warrior.
In the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, dragon bones were placed all over the city to prove
that dragons existed.
Many historical accounts of dragons may suggest that these legendary animals were indeed genuine,
but if so, it naturally begs the question of whether huge, winged serpents still exist
today.
Some scholars believe the answer is yes, and they cite several reports of a flying creature
known as the Van Meter visitor in the early twentieth century as evidence.
In the early 1900s, the small town of Van Meter, Iowa, was terrorized by a giant eight-foot
bat-like monster with huge leather bat-like wings and a horn on its head that could project
a light.
On the fifth night, during thunderstorms, it emerged with a smaller version of itself,
possibly the female gender or offspring, before descending back into the coal mine and vanishing
never to be seen again.
In a similar odd dragon case, people living in central China dug up bones they thought
belonged to flying dragons and used them in traditional treatments for decades.
It was discovered that the bones came from dinosaurs, and today scientists are the ones
excavating the area.
Until recently, the relics were marketed in Henan province as "dragon bones" for approximately
25 cents per pound, according to scientist Dong Zhiming.
To alleviate dizziness and leg cramps, the calcium-rich bones were occasionally cooked
with additional seasonings and offered to youngsters.
Other times, he claimed, they were broken up and formed into a paste that was administered
directly to fractures and other injuries.
Dong was part of a team that recently uncovered a 60-foot-long plant-eating dinosaur that
lived 85 million to 100 million years ago in Henan's Ruyang County.
When the townspeople discovered the bones were from dinosaurs, they contributed 440
pounds to Dong and his colleagues for investigation.
The peasants had dug up an estimated 1 ton of bones during the previous two decades.
"They thought the 'dragon bones' were from flying dragons," said Dong, a professor at
the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
In another astonishing find from China last year, scientists unearthed a massive petrified
skull that had been hidden in a well for 90 years — and it's forcing them to reconsider
human evolution.
According to academics, the skull was discovered in 1933 by Chinese laborers building a bridge
in Harbin, a northern Chinese city, under the Japanese rule.
The skull was wrapped and stored in an abandoned well to keep it from falling into Japanese
hands.
It was only recently that the old guy who originally hid it told his grandson about
it, just before his death.
Chinese researchers have named the astonishingly well-preserved fossil Homo Longi, a new human
species.
The species has been called "Dragon man," after the northern Chinese province where
the skull was discovered, Heilongjiang — or the "Black Dragon River" region in English.
Scientists hypothesized that the skull belonged to a 50-year-old male in a series of three
articles published in the scientific journal the Innovation.
According to the experts, he would have had a large nose to allow him to breathe freely
during intense exertion and would have been engineered to resist the severe regional winters.
One of the most striking features of the Harbin cranium is its huge size, which, at 9 inches
long and more than 6 inches wide, dwarfs the current human skull.
In addition, the skull has a cranial capacity of around 1,420 milliliters (48 fluid ounces).
That falls within the range of normal human cranial capacity, but the skull also has many
primitive features that make it a unique link between modern people and Neanderthals.
When the scientists used a software program to compare the relic to 95 other skulls, they
discovered that the Harbin cranium and a few other Chinese skulls appeared to form a new
branch that was closer to modern humans than Neanderthals.
The Chinese team believes the Harbin cranium is distinct enough to be classified as a new
species.
Others, however, are not convinced.
Professor Chris Stringer, a research leader at the Natural History Museum in London who
also participated on the study, believes the skull is comparable to one discovered in China
in 1978.
What do you think of these strange discoveries?
Do you think dragons exist?
Tell us in the comments section.