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The Doxiang People |
The Republic of Mali is located in West Africa. Along the banks of the Nile River in this country lives an indigenous ethnic group known as the Doxiang.
Their way of life is primarily based on agriculture and nomadism. They face significant hardships and poverty, with most living in rural areas or in caves in the mountains. They do not have a written language and pass down their knowledge orally from one generation to the next, using woven cords to record events. From this perspective, they are not much different from other West African ethnic groups. However, the religious rituals they perform are surprising and attract the attention of anthropologists and astronomers worldwide.
Every 600 years, when the star Sirius appears between two mountain peaks, the Doxiang hold their most solemn and largest religious ceremony, known as Sigui, which is central to their religious life.
In the 1920s, two French anthropologists, Gria and Didelun, traveled to West Africa to live with the Doxiang for ten years. Through their long and close relationship, they gained the trust and affection of the Doxiang people. From senior shamans, they learned that the Doxiang, in maintaining their religious beliefs for hundreds of thousands of years, possess precise knowledge about an astronomical phenomenon. In the mystical teachings of the Doxiang, there are detailed records about a distant star, which could not be seen with the naked eye hundreds of years ago. Even today, without the help of the most advanced telescopes, it cannot be observed or measured.
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Shaman |
The star in question is the companion star of Sirius, which the Doxiang refer to as “Pak Tolu,” where “Pak” means “small” and “Tolu” means “star.” They also describe it as the “heaviest star” with a white color. Remarkably, the Doxiang have accurately stated three fundamental characteristics of this star: small, heavy, and white. In reality, the companion star of Sirius is indeed a white dwarf.
The term “white dwarf” does not refer to a specific star but is a general term for a type of star that is “white” and “dwarf.” “White” indicates that its temperature is very high, with the surface temperature of a white dwarf around 10,000 degrees Celsius, emitting white light, while “dwarf” indicates its small volume. Astronomers state that it takes one or two hundred white dwarfs combined to equal the size of the Sun, while the smallest white dwarf is only one ten-thousandth the size of the Sun.
In the southeastern sky during winter each year, we can see the brightest stars (like Vega and the Sun) in the sky, which is Sirius. Its volume is twice that of the Sun, but its light is 20 times brighter than the Sun.
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Ritual Offerings |
Beside it, there is a small star that is not visible, which revolves around Sirius; this small star is the companion star of Sirius. Despite its small size, it has a significant mass, exactly as the Doxiang described—a white dwarf star.
Astronomers speculate that the companion star of Sirius was discovered in 1844. They theorize that the companion star is influenced by the gravitational pull of another star, leading to its erratic motion. In 1930, with the help of telescopes with far-reaching views and modern astronomical instruments, it was recognized as a companion star with a small volume but an extremely high density.
However, for humanity on Earth, that star is too far away and too small, leading people to question whether it can have any impact on Sirius?
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Orbital Motion of Sirius’s Companion Star |
We cannot help but ask, how do the Doxiang, living in caves in Africa, possess knowledge about this star? Do they rely on intuition? Not only that, the Doxiang can accurately sketch the elliptical orbit of Sirius’s companion star in the sand, which aligns almost perfectly with the observations of astronomers. The Doxiang say that the orbital period of Sirius’s companion star is 49.5 years (the actual figure is 50.04 years), and it rotates on its axis as well (this is also confirmed by astronomers). The Doxiang believe that the companion star of Sirius is a star created by the divine, the center of the Universe. Additionally, they have known for a long time about astronomical knowledge regarding planets surrounding Earth. For example, they recognize that Jupiter has four main moons and have four methods for creating calendars, sequentially based on the Sun, Sirius, the Moon, and Venus.
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Na Mẫu |
The local priests state that their astronomical knowledge comes from an intelligent creature from the Sirius system that comes to Earth to impart knowledge to the Doxiang, which they call Na Mẫu. In Doxiang legend, Na Mẫu comes from somewhere in the East—where the Doxiang people originally hail from—before arriving on Earth. Na Mẫu has a form that resembles both fish and human, being an amphibious creature living in water.
In the paintings and dances of the Doxiang, there are representations of legends related to Na Mẫu. The Doxiang always believe that their people did not originally live on 
this current land; they are descendants of the Berber people, an ancient ethnic group from North Africa. The Berber initially lived at the northern edge of the Sahara Desert. It was not until the 1st and 2nd centuries AD that they began migrating south, intermarrying with black people, gradually becoming part of the black ethnic group. Although Judaism has had a significant influence, they still maintain their ethnic religion.
The astronomical knowledge about Sirius that the Doxiang have preserved over the years aligns perfectly with what modern astronomers have discovered about this star. Where did they acquire such extraordinary astronomical knowledge? It can be affirmed that without telescopes, humans cannot see the companion star of Sirius. However, the ancient Doxiang certainly did not have telescopes. Is it possible that the knowledge they possess was indeed imparted by beings from the Sirius system? If not, where did the Doxiang acquire their knowledge about the companion star of Sirius?
