Some of the more than 800 artifacts on display at the Museum of Aliens in Taipei. Central News Agency

Could it be that not only extraterrestrials have visited our planet but that they also left behind some 900 artifacts as evidence of their presence as well?

That's precisely the position taken by a group that has assembled an exhibition in downtown Taipei.

The group believes some residents of our planet originated from somewhere in deep space.

Located in Taipei's Gongguan district - near National Taiwan University - the Museum of Aliens showcases a total of 888 items made of stone and jade. Most are sculptures resembling alien creatures who normally never appear outside of Hollywood films.

The items are from the personal collection of Chen Yi-wen, who heads an association of people who are interested in alien culture and who believe "aliens come in various forms and they are among us," museum guide Audrey Kuan said.

Most of the sculptures have narrow slit eyes and pointed ears. Some resemble birds or turtles, and some wear strange hats.

Almost all of the items are from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern mainland. Four are from Central America where the Maya flourished. "According to our research, their history is in the range of hundreds of years to thousands of years old," Kuan said.

The association believes that aliens communicate by electric waves rather than language and are "100 times, even 1,000 times more intelligent than humans." She added that "alien spirits exist inside the bodies of some humans andexert a tremendous impact on them."

"To us, Albert Einstein, Adolph Hitler and Sun Yat-sen were all aliens. They were either great men or extremely evil, which is a sign they have been affected by alien spirits." she said.

Wizards and witches were the first group of humans "created or affected" by outer-space creatures, the association says.

Many scientists and religious groups have visited the museum since it opened in mid-March, she said, adding that most visitors are curious about these items and the association's theory but that the exhibits are difficult to explain. Among the visitors was Lu Ching-chung, a well-known researcher of Taiwan's "UFOlogy" and a self-proclaimed alien spirit.

Scientific research on aliens has stalled for quite some time, said Lee Chia-wei, a paleontology professor at Tsing Hua University.

"The only fact that has been scientifically confirmed is that there are forms of life on other planets... it is difficult to prove that human beings are able to communicate with extraterrestrial life forms by electromagnetic waves, however," he said.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 03/26/2010 page6)