Iron Man, a Buddhist statue stolen from Tibet by the Nazis in 1938. It is thought to be 1,000 years old. Chemical analysis by scientists at Stuttgart University reveals it as a fragment of an iron meteorite. The statue is 24 centimeters – about 9.5 inches – high.

Deborah Byrd Oct 09, 2012
Scientists at University of Stuttgart found that a Buddhist statue known as Iron Man has geochemistry matching the 15,000-year-old Chinga meteorite.

This story made the rounds in late September 2012, but I didn’t want you to miss it. It’s a 1,000-year-old Buddhist statue – returned to Germany shortly before World War II by a Nazi-backed expedition to Tibet – that’s now believed to have been carved from a meteorite. The statue is known as Iron Man. It bears a swastika on its chest, a symbol that dates back to ancient India as well as classical antiquity. Scientists from Germany and Austria determined the meteoritic origin of the statue through chemical analysis. The statue is believed to be carved from a piece of the Chinga iron meteorite that fell near the border of Siberia and Mongolia around 15,000 years ago.

Iron Man, a Buddhist statue stolen from Tibet by the Nazis in 1938. It is thought to be 1,000 years old. Chemical analysis by scientists at Stuttgart University reveals it as a fragment of an iron meteorite. The statue is 24 centimeters – about 9.5 inches – high.

The expedition to Tibet, in 1938, was backed by Heinrich Himmler, a military commander and leading member of the Nazi party. He’s said to have believed that the secret origin of the entire Aryan race could be uncovered in Tibet. It was manned by members of the Schutzstaffel – often abbreviated SS – a paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party

More: http://earthsky.org/human-world/buddhist-statue-taken-from-tibet-by-nazi-ss-carved-from-meteorite