THAI TALES
Officials take action to close down a site where UFO seekers gather, and the Naga fireballs blaze again
BUDDHIST ALIENS
For over 20 years, a hilltop in central Thailand has been attracting UFO seekers who believe that extraterrestrials appear above a huge Buddha statue, where they send telepathic communiqués, walk across nearby sugarcane fields, and use a crocodile-infested lake as a portal to and from their home planets Pluto and Loku. It all began in 1997 in the town of Nakhon Sawan (three hours by road or rail north of Bangkok) where retired Sergeant-Major Cherd Chuensamnaun was deep in Buddhist meditation at his home, when he started receiving mental communications from what he understood to be space aliens.
His family was sceptical. “I asked my father to tell the aliens to show themselves,” says Wassana, his daughter. “The next day, the aliens sent energy to spin my brother and brother-inlaw.” She claims that the two men were lifted up from the living room sofa and simultaneously flung outdoors into the yard. “I felt like my legs and my arms had to spin,” adds Wassana’s brotherin-law Jaroen Raepeth. “I could not control myself for four or five minutes. I didn’t feel afraid. We both spun outside.”
Through an upstairs window, Wassana’s sister-in-law says she saw a UFO. “It was about 10 or 15 metres (33-49ft) long, at treetop level,” adds Wassana, who left her nursing job to focus on promoting the extraterrestrials and their messages, which, she says, continued to be telepathically transmitted to her father over the years. Prior to his death in 2000, he taught his family how to communicate with the aliens, and today, more than 100 other Thais have acquired this ability, some of whom insist that they too have seen aliens and spaceships in the area.
Khao Kala hill, just outside Nakhon Sawan (which translates as ‘City of Heaven’) now regularly attracts crowds of UFO enthusiasts who meditate there in the hope of receiving a message from the aliens. Most encounters have been reported either near the Chuensamnaun family home, or at the hill and its surrounding area. The 360-degree view from Khao Kala looks down on the flat sugarcane fields below, where believers claim to have witnessed silvery spacecraft, festooned with colourful lights and resembling the classic 1950s domed, circular flying saucer. Devotees say they have witnessed aliens disembarking from these craft, walking around the sugarcane fields and then vanishing. The aliens themselves are described as small, slender, silvery humanoids with huge, gloss-black almond-shaped eyes in a pointy face, and bulbous bald heads topped with a single antenna. “There are two types of aliens”, Wassana explained. “One group is from the planet Pluto. The others are from a planet named Loku. Pluto aliens are made of energy, can appear in physical form and are able to teach humans. Loku aliens have a physical body and knowledge of high technology. They work together”. The planet Loku is apparently “in the Milky Way, but they didn’t tell us where.”
Khao Kala hill was already a well-established Thai tourist attraction because of its largerthan-life statue of the Buddha protected by a mythical sevenheaded Naga snake, and its nearby ‘Buddha footprint’, both of which are places of public worship. Indeed, some of the UFO devotees claim the extraterrestrials’ messages have much in common with traditional Buddhist teachings.
Wassana said she had been told by Pluto’s leader that he had been living at the hill for 10,000 years, and that he travels from Pluto to Thailand through different dimensions, using advanced physics. He also told Wassana that the Buddha was “the greatest human mind”.
In echoes of George King’s Aetherius Society, whose followers also gathered at high places to communicate with advanced interplanetary intelligences (see p77), Pluto’s leader gives plenty of advice about “karma”, “reincarnation”, “greed”, “fear”, and other Buddhist concerns. But devotees needn’t worry about humankind or the Earth itself succumbing to nuclear war, climate change or apocalyptic pandemics. These technologically superior, benevolent aliens have promised
He taught his family how to communicate with the aliens
to take care of selected survivors.
Ninety-five per cent of Thailand’s population is Buddhist, and whilst Buddhism is open to the possibility of extraterrestrials, ghosts, spirits or other non-human entities, it cautions against illusions. Commenting on the Khao Kala phenomenon, Buddhist scholar Dr Veeranut Rojanaprapa said: “Buddha taught us that maybe the one who says that he thinks he can directly speak with the alien, or he believes he hears them [sic]. But it is not useful. It doesn’t matter if he hears the alien or not. It does not help us for [experiencing] nirvana … most of the situations are only illusion.”
Disapproval of anything perceived to be a cult veering too far from traditional religious beliefs has led Thai authorities to take a keen interest in the UFO devotees’ gatherings at Khao Kala. Government officials were reportedly alarmed at the potential threat to the area’s official “protected forest area” status, and whilst visitors are permitted to climb the hill to view the Buddha statue and to see the nearby “Buddha footprint”, the law forbids anyone from living or staying overnight here.
In August, UFO seekers who had pitched tents at the site were dispersed by 40 officials, including members of the Forestry Department, who further petitioned a court to ban mass gatherings there. On 20 September, about 30 police and forestry officials confronted Wassana Chuensamnaun and about 60 other extraterrestrial enthusiasts. The group, wearing white clothing, planned to film a video while meditating on top of the hill after sunset in the hope of contacting the aliens. Reluctant to be arrested, the seekers regrouped at the foot of the hill on private property, where they meditated for a few hours and then left.
“If we find anyone guilty of wrongdoing, we will file a criminal case against them”, Police Major General Damrong Petpong told Khao Sod newspaper in August. “If a UFO descends and parks here, that’s even better. We’ll capture them all”.
NAGA FIREBALLS
Roughly 240 miles (386km) northeast of Khao Kala, Thailand’s Nong Khai province is also becoming a draw for fortean tourists. Here, the Naga fireball phenomenon (also known as the Mekong lights) has taken place for at least the past 20 years.
The Mekong separates northern Thailand from Laos, and locals believe the Naga, a semi-divine serpent-like being, lives below the waters, protecting both the river and the lives of all who dwell along its shores. At the end of the Buddhist Lent festival in autumn, glowing red fireballs burst from the river. Locals believe these to be the Naga’s blessing. In addition, a Buddhist temple in Nong Khai city exhibits certain objects said to be fossilised Naga bones, such as a tooth and an egg.
While their roles vary somewhat among different cultures, Nagas are generally regarded as benevolent servants of the Buddha. On the 15th day of the waxing Moon of the 11th lunar month, a full Moon usually falling in October, the Phayanak festival is held (Phayanak being the King of the Nagas).
This year, it fell on 13 October 2019, and crowds of tourists eagerly thronged the banks of the Mekong, hoping for a good vantage point. Popular Naga fireball viewing points are in Phon Phisai and Rattanawapee districts, especially in front of the Thai temple in Phon Phisai. Hotel rooms and other accommodation sell out fast. Last year, the climax was on 24 October, when up to 408 of the orbs were counted, 260 in Rattanawapee and 148 in Phon Pisai. Viewer numbers were up 20 per cent on 2017. In Nakhon
Panom, residents and visitors joined in the tradition of Lai Rua Fai, setting off boats carrying flames to signify the burning of past grievances and suffering. The phenomenon has become so celebrated that a Naga Fireball Festival, featuring a variety of cultural performances, takes place in Muang Nong Khai district; this year the festival went on for a week.
Various proposals have been made to account for the fireballs; for example, swamp gas, long a sceptics’ favourite to explain away alleged UFO sightings. But in laboratory experiments designed to replicate conditions needed for spontaneous ignition, a combination of oxygen, methane, and phosphorus compounds burned bright bluish-green with a sudden pop, producing black smoke. Under no conditions did it burn red, or rise up into the air, as do the Mekong fireballs. Instead, examination of video recordings of the fireballs show red-orange lights ascending very rapidly, consistent with fireworks, small rockets, or even tracer rounds.
However, such sceptical explanations have not dampened the ardour of visitors. In 2001, an estimated 150,000 people attended the festival. Following a TV report, and a movie the same year called Mekong Full Moon Party, attendance rose to 400,000 the following year. This brought in 50 to 100 million baht, (around £2.5 million) to the region. Whatever the cause, the Mekong fireballs are a huge boost for the area’s otherwise tiny local economy. For more, see: FT105:22, 166:30-35, 328:10-11. skeptoid.com/episodes/4183, 8 Dec 2009; [CNN] 6 Oct; insider.com, 8 Oct; thaivisa.com, 13 Oct 2019.