What is the Kalpa Vigraha?

Answer 1

I have gathered the information below from various postings on the net.

The Kalpa Vigraha is a small image of Shiva that is believed to be the oldest Hindu idol discovered so far on earth. University of California Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley which conducted the carbon dating of the wooden box that contained the idol and organic deposits in crevices of the idol itself indicated that it was at least 28,450 years old. This means that the idol was not even from the Kali Yuga. It was from a previous Yuga called the Dwapara Yuga. None of the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia or Mohendojaro-Harappa had even begun at that time. The wooly mammoth and the sabre-toothed tiger were still roaming the planet!

The Kalpa Vigraha is quite small, weighing only about 47gms. In size it is almost small enough to hide in a fist of your hand. No photographs of the Kalpa Vigraha are available except the four photographs released by the American CIA showing the front, back, top and bottom of the idol. The photographs seem to indicate that it is made of a brass-like alloy and it is quite worn-out. There is also pitting of the metal at the base of the pedestal of the vigraha.

Though it is a Hindu idol, its origin is not modern India. It was brought from Tibet to Nepal by a Buddhist monk in an unusual wooden box about the year 1959. Later the Tibetan monk and his guards were killed by invading Chinese forces. American CIA officials posted in Nepal, not knowing what to do with the wooden box containing the Kalpa Vigraha, sent it to a secret airbase in India and later transported it to a military camp called Camp Hale in Colorado. It was later kept at a CIA store-room in Washington DC labeled "ST Circus Mustang-0183". Initially the Americans did not know what it was or why the monk had placed it in their care. Or possibly they had been given some information which they did not publicize at that time.

It was the loss of the Kalpa Vigraha and the result of a CIA experiment that broke the news about the vigraha world-wide. The vigraha is now believed to be somewhere in India.

The CIA conducted some experiments that involved making subjects drink water in which the vigraha was immersed for nine days. Upon monitoring the lives of all the subjects who drank this water it was found that they all lived unusually long lives. Many had crossed the age of 110. It was this astounding discovery, a direct result of the experiments, which made breaking news when retired CIA officials revealed this to the media in 2008.