The Dogon Tribe’s Incredible Knowledge Of Astronomy – Who Taught Them?

Mali’s Dogon people, like many African tribes, have had a turbulent past. They moved to the Bandiagara Plateau between the 13th and 16th centuries, where they still dwell now.

For the bulk of the year, their country is a bleak, arid, rocky landscape with cliffs and gorges, interspersed with little settlements constructed of mud and straw 300 miles (500 kilometers) south of Timbuktu. The Dogon and neighboring tribes are considered “primitive” by most anthropologists, however the two million people who make up the Dogon and neighboring tribes disagree.

They don’t deserve it, except in the sense that their way of life hasn’t changed much over the years. They have a profound and intellectual philosophy and theology, despite their lack of interest in Western technology.

Outsiders who have lived with them and learned to appreciate their simplicity describe them as happy, satisfied people with a millennia-old perspective on life’s fundamentals.

VISITORS ON SIRIUS.

The Dogon, on the other hand, make an astounding claim: they were educated and ‘civilized’ by people from outer space, namely from the 8.7 light-year-distance star system Sirius. They seem to have an extraordinarily in-depth grasp of astronomy for such a “primitive” and secluded people.

For example, they know that Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, has a companion star that is tiny, dense, and extremely heavy yet invisible to the naked eye. This is completely accurate.

However, it was not discovered until the mid-nineteenth century by Western astronomers; it was not described in detail until the 1920s, and it was not photographed until 1970. (due to its poor brightness).

This weird astronomical reality is the underlying concept of Dogon mythology. It may be observed in their most secret ceremonies and is represented in sand drawings. It is also built into their sacred edifice.

Sewn into their blankets are sculptures and designs that are probably definitely hundreds, if not thousands, of years old.

RELATIONSHIP WITHIN THE INTERNET.

Overall, this has been hailed as the most persuasive proof yet that Earth had an interplanetary link in its recent past – a near-miss of the instructional sort, one would say.

The extent of Dogon knowledge has also been investigated to see if all they say is true or if it comes from an Earthbound source, such as a traveling missionary.

So, how did Westerners hear about Dogon beliefs? There is only one primary source, which is fortunately quite extensive. In 1931, two of France’s most distinguished anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, decided to study the Dogon in depth.

For the next 21 years, they lived nearly regularly with the tribe, and in 1946, Griaule was invited by the Dogon priests to reveal their most sacred secrets.

He took part in their rites and ceremonies, learning as much as any Westerner could about the complex symbolism arising from their core belief in amphibious creatures known as Nommo who came from outer space to civilize the planet. (The Dogon adored Griaule as much as their priests, and at his death in Mali in 1956, a quarter of a million tribesmen gathered to pay him honor.)

The findings of the two anthropologists were first published in the Journal de la Societe des Africainistes in 1950, under the title “A Sudanese Sirius System,” in a cautious and scholarly work.

After Griaule’s death, Germaine Dieterlen remained in Paris and was appointed Secretary General of the Societe des Africainistes in the Musee de I’Homme. She gathered their results in a huge book called Le Renard Pete, which was published by the French National Institute of Ethnology in 1965 as the first of a planned series.

ELLIPTICAL ORIENTATION is a type of elliptical orientation.

The two volumes show indisputably that the Dogon belief system is based on an astonishingly precise grasp of astronomy mixed with astrology. Sirius is at the center, as are the other stars and planets that they believe revolve around it.

They also believe that its primary companion star, po tola, is made up of heavier elements than those present on Earth and revolves in an elliptical orbit that lasts 50 years. This is all correct. Western astronomers, on the other hand, only noticed something strange about Sirius 150 years ago.

They had discovered certain anomalies in its velocity, which they could only explain by postulating the presence of another nearby star that was interfering with Sirius’ motions owing to gravity.

In 1862, American astronomer Alvan Graham Clark discovered the star while testing a new telescope and called it Sirius B.

After the first identification of Sirius’ oddities, it would take another half-century to find a mathematical and physical explanation for such a little object wielding such enormous power.

Sir Arthur Eddington postulated in the 1920s that certain stars are ‘white dwarfs,’ or stars that have collapsed in on themselves and become superdense as they approach the end of their lifetimes.

For the Dogon variety, the description was spot on. But how could Griaule and Dieterlen have learned about the idea in the three years between Eddington’s introduction of it in a popular book in 1928 and their arrival in 1931?

Both anthropologists were confused by the situation. They said, “The question of how men might know of the motions and certain attributes of practically invisible stars with no equipment at their disposal has not been answered.”

At this point, another researcher, Robert Temple, an American scholar of Sanskrit and Oriental Studies residing in Europe, arrived and became intrigued by the two issues discussed. Should the evidence of the Dogon’s astronomical understanding be trusted, first and foremost? Second, assuming that the first question was answered yes, how did they obtain this data?

KNOWLEDGE FROM THE PAST.

He became convinced that the Dogon did indeed contain ancient wisdom that concerned not only Sirius B, but the entire solar system after some thorough reading of the source material and conversations with Germaine Dieterlen in Paris.

They went on to say that the Moon was “dry and lifeless as dried dead blood.” In their image, Saturn was represented with a ring around it (Two other exceptional cases of primitive tribes privy to this information are known.) They were aware that the planets orbited the sun, and they kept track of Venus’ movements in their holy structure. They were aware of the four “major moons.”

The first person to see Jupiter was Galileo. (At this point, at least 14 have been recognized.) Their idea that the Earth spins on its axis was right. They also thought there were an infinite number of stars and that the Milky Way, which was related to Earth, was ruled by a spiral force.

Much of this was carried down through mythology and iconography of the Dogon people. Objects on Earth were thought to represent what happened in the skies, but the idea of ‘twinning’ obfuscated many of the computations, making the evidence inconclusive.

In the instance of Sirius B, on the other hand, the key facts looked unarguable. Indeed, the Dogon decided to symbolize Sirius B the tiniest yet most significant thing they could find: a grain of their crucial food crop. (The word “po tolo” literally means “fonio seed star.”) They also utilized their imaginations to depict the enormous weight of the mineral content: ‘All terrestrial mankind put together cannot lift it.’

Their sand designs drew Temple’s attention in particular. The egg-shaped ellipse might be viewed as symbolizing the “egg of life” or something else entirely. The Dogon, on the other hand, were sure that it suggested an orbit, a fact discovered by famed astronomer Johannes Kepler in the 16th century and probably unknown to untrained African tribes. They also stressed the significance of the role of

Sirius is precisely where it should be, not where one may anticipate it to be: at a focus point on the ellipse’s edge, not in the middle.

THE NOMMO FACTORY is a company that makes nommos.

So, how did the Dogon come to possess such ethereal wisdom? For the Dogon priests, there is no ambiguity in their response to this issue. They believe that in the distant past, amphibious beings from a planet in the Sirius system arrived on Earth and handed on their wisdom to initiates, who subsequently passed it on to future generations.

They revere the creatures as “the monitors of the universe, the parents of mankind, caretakers of its spiritual principles, rain distributors, and masters of the water,” as they refer to them as Nommo.

The Dogon fashioned sand drawings to portray the spinning, whirling fall of a Nommo’ark,’ which Temple misunderstood for a spacecraft. ‘The arrival of the ark is described in incredible detail,’ he remarked.

The ark is said to have landed to the northeast of the Dogon territory, which is where the Dogon claim to have originated.

The Dogon describe the sound of the ark landing.

They say Nommo’s “voice” was flung down in four directions as he dropped, and that it sounded like four gigantic stone blocks being pounded with stones by children in a tiny cave near Lake Debo, according to distinct rhythms. The Dogon are most likely attempting to depict a massive vibrating sound.

Standing in the cave and shielding one’s ears in response to the noise is simple to envision. The ark’s descent must have sounded like a jet runway at close range.’

Other myths about the ark’s landing, such as how it landed on dry soil and “displaced a mountain of dust formed by the whirlwind it caused,” were employed by the Dogon priests. The impact roughed up the earth, causing it to slip.’

EVIDENCE OF CONCLUSION.

Robert Temple’s conclusions, first published in 1976 in The Sirius Mystery, are both controversial and well-researched.

As a result, his findings have been utilized as ammunition by both believers and detractors of alien visitations in Earth’s early past (including the vast majority of scientists and historians).

Erich von Daniken, for example, has complimented the Dogon beliefs, characterizing them as “conclusive proof… of ancient astronauts,” despite the fact that his best-selling books on the subject were subsequently proven to be based, in major part, on erroneous material.

Temple has been criticized by a number of science authors, including the late Carl Sagan and Ian Ridpath, who believe that the reasoning is untested and that Temple has read too much into Dogon mythology.

Years after becoming interested in the subject, Robert Temple found nothing to contradict in his letter to his publisher, who expressed his fundamental skepticism of the book as follows: ‘Do you believe it, Mr. Temple?’ ‘Do you believe that to be true?’ Temple said, ‘Yes, I do.’ My own study has convinced me.

At first, I was just conducting some research. I had my reservations. I started looking for hoaxes because I couldn’t believe it was genuine. However, I began to discover that there were increasingly more parts that fit. “Yes, I believe it,” is my reaction. The main point is whether the information obtained by the Dogon could have been obtained in any other way.

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