Fairies are quite popular characters from Western folklore (mainly English, Scottish and Irish). Usually they are described as tiny, pretty humanoid creatures with transparent wings, but this is already a late Victorian tradition. In old tales, they were described either as a kind of luminous creature, or as something green and more like a troll.
But in the East, fairies were known long before the development of European civilization. So, in Buddhist cosmogony, there are three main spheres of the Universe, each of which is divided into several worlds. In one of them, called the Sky of Growth, live the little gods of Kumbanda, whose description exactly corresponds to the European idea of fairies.
Their translucent bodies have a pale green color, they can become invisible to the human eye, they can fly. Kumbandas reproduce in a vegetable way - they are born in the form of the fruits of the magic tree Nari Pon. Kumbandas are directly responsible for the plant world on Earth and protect it.
In Thailand, not far from Sin Buri, north of Bangkok, there is the Wat Phrapangmuni temple. One of the Buddhist shrines is kept in this temple - the mummified bodies of two humanoid creatures unknown to science, placed in a glass, richly decorated reliquary.
Believers claim that these are the bodies of the Buddhist fairies of Kumband. The size of each mummy does not exceed the length of two phalanges of an adult's finger, and on their heads they have something resembling a headdress.
One of these mummies was kindly provided by the abbot of the temple to scientists for research. It turned out that the body of the mummy has a normal human structure and proportions, with the exception of elongated limbs and an enlarged head relative to the body.
The creature has five fingers on its arms and legs, the head has a mouth, nose, eyes and ears. The study of the external integument of the mummy under a microscope led experts to the conclusion that its tissues are of plant origin.
Moreover, the strange "headgear" turned out to be a dried stalk for inspection.
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In general, on this the question of the origin of mummies could be closed, but some scientists decided to go all the way. And for good reason. X-ray scans led to stunning results - a fully formed skeletal structure was found inside the bodies, exactly replicating a human. Teeth, tongue and some internal organs were also found.
In the course of research, a hypothesis arose about a rare genetic deformity of a premature human embryo, but was immediately rejected. The formed skeleton left no doubt that it was an adult individual, and the presence of plant tissues in the body of a vertebrate did not fit into the scientific concepts of modern biology.
In addition, two completely identical mummies exclude a version of an accidental genetic mutation. All these facts have puzzled scientists. One thing is clear: these mummies are clearly not the result of the labor of a skillful forger, but biological beings unknown to science.
The question of the real existence of such fairy-tale characters remains open. Science is not able to reliably confirm or deny it. But folk tales that arose from ancient legends can carry information about those phenomena that our distant ancestors had the opportunity to see with their own eyes.
So, the official science claims that dinosaurs became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era, that is, more than 60 million years ago, and the first people (Homo sapiens) appeared no earlier than 30-40 thousand years ago. However, it is possible that references to dinosaurs have come down to us in the form of myths and legends about dragons.
And our fabulous Serpent Gorynych looks too suspiciously like a relic reptile. So why not assume that fairies, elves and other characters in children's fairy tales are not a figment of the imagination of ancient writers, but eyewitness accounts that have come down to our days?
Oleg POLYAKOV
