Just a quick FYI: That image has nothing to do with today’s story, directly anyway. I simply went with it because I didn’t want to use my S-tier Microsoft Paint skills today.
Anyways, greetings! Welcome back to my blog, the little place where I ramble on for thousands of words about something weird I found on the Internet and share with you! Given that this is one of two ongoing Decemysterys, that means I’ve been posting daily. That also means I’ve been sitting on my bed for months now, typing and subsequently making my carpal tunnel worse. Ah, but that’s beside the point; no, you’re likely here to read about something strange.
Lucky for you, I have a never-ending supply of weird stories. After all, I spend most of my time reading about strange happenings from around the world; it’s one of the few things I do day in and day out. So, for today’s serving of Fortean goodness, I present to you the story of The Tajikistan Cloud Monster! Come along, dear reader; it’s time to dive into the world of alien sightings once more!
Cloudy With A Chance of Aliens
Like many other stories I’ve written about this month, I found this on sustained_disgust’s Obscure Unsolved Mysteries Iceberg. I feel like most of the things I’ve written about this month will begin to blend together due to me using so many of the same sources. It’s going to be surreal looking back on all of these write-ups in, say, five or so years.
Anyways, the iceberg’s entry has a link to ufoinfo.com, which, for some reason, has a homepage that advertises a casino game. I’m guessing this site is quite old and that it’s not quite dedicated to UFOs anymore; just a hunch. If you don’t trust that link, then thinkaboutitdocs.com also has the story written up; both sites are extremely similar content-wise, though ufoinfo’s page has writings from Albert Rosales. If his name rings a bell, he wrote a book series that compiles hundreds upon hundreds of various humanoid sightings. I own it, and I highly recommend you read it if you’re into that kind of thing.
Now, then, onto the story. It took place in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan; one night in August of 1980, a man—who I’ll refer to as Aziz—was on his way home. As a quick side note, I have absolutely no idea if Aziz is a common name in Tajikistan, but I saw it listed as a relatively common one and, honestly, I figured it would be better to go with that than an Americanized name, like Josh or Derrick. Anyways, during Aziz’s late-night trip, something in the sky caught his attention. It was a cloud, and it was being illuminated by the Moon…
And there was something on top of it.
According to Aziz, this thing was “as white as snow” and had “black bead-like eyes” along with “a long white tail.” It also jumped on the cloud, which created either fog or steam. That makes me think this wasn’t actually a cloud but some sort of weird alien hoverboard. I digress; we won’t be getting an answer, and I doubt we ever will.
The alien either took notice of Aziz or wanted to see what was on the world below, so it descended to the ground and got off of its sweet ride. I want to note that both ufoinfo.com and thinkaboutitdocs.com say that the creature “descended back to earth,” though it isn’t stated if it had ever been on the ground before now. Though, hey, maybe my reading comprehension is just that bad; I wouldn’t be surprised whatsoever.
Unsurprisingly, Aziz was terrified at the sight of an extraterrestrial; not helping matters was that the thing was walking towards him. So, he did what I think most people would do: he “fell to the ground and covered his head with a coat.” Normally, I’d snark at such a silly action, but I’m pretty sure most aliens could kill me in a hundred ways with their brains. So, I won’t judge; I’d probably give up, too.
Whether by God’s good graces or the alien’s weakness was brand-name coats, the next time Aziz looked up, the alien was getting back onto its alien-brand-name cloud ride. With that, it disappeared; I don’t know if it vanished into thin air or if it took off back into the heavens above. Either way, that is where Aziz’s otherworldly encounter ended. And, honestly, it’s all I could find on this thing. The sources cited for this story didn’t have anything else to add. The only thing of note that I found was another extraterrestrial encounter that took place in Tajikistan in August of 1980, known as The Gissar Ridge Encounter. I won’t be going over that, though, as it’s unrelated and is nothing like this one.
Still, before we jump into the theories, I do want to note that this isn’t the first time I’ve talked about something walking on a cloud. Back in 2020, I wrote about The Cloud Giant, which also involved—shock of all shocks—something walking on a cloud. I really need to rewrite that article; I need to rewrite almost everything from before 2021, actually. Anyways, with all of that said and done, let’s now jump into the theories. Well, what few there are since this story really didn’t offer much to work with.
Theories
1. An alien
The theories for this story are, unfortunately, going to be aggressively bare bones on account of there being extremely little to this story. Nevertheless, I’ll try to add as much substance as I can.
The first and most obvious theory is that this was an alien. There are tons of different kinds of aliens—at least in the realm of ufology—so this theory isn’t that wild. Though, I must say, the being described in this encounter isn’t one I’m familiar with. Then again, there wasn’t much detail given, so that may be the issue. If I had to guess, I’d say it was a Reptilian, but that’s likely because I’m thinking of the Pokémon Kecleon.
As for why the alien would be on Earth, I have no idea. There are numerous reasons that an alien may want to visit Earth: gawk at the wildlife like we do when we visit zoos, find resources, or something else. That said, I have absolutely no idea why this particular alien decided to fly off when Aziz hid beneath his coat.
That said, I do want to touch upon the whole “cloud” angle. Personally, I’m unfamiliar with accounts of aliens riding around on clouds; this is new for me. However, there are plenty of stories regarding clouds that resemble UFOs, along with other weirdly shaped clouds. You needn’t look further than the header image for this write-up. You can also find plenty of news articles on clouds that look like UFOs.
Now, these supposed alien ships are explained away as pareidolia. That’s the phenomenon where you think you see a shape or image in something where there’s nothing. You know, like the infamous Face on Mars. It’s some mountains and shadows that create the illusion of a face. With UFO-shaped clouds, it’s the same deal.
Nevertheless, there are people who believe these clouds to be something more: clouds hiding UFOs, some sort of cloaking technology, or something else entirely. Personally, I think they’re just clouds; I remember seeing an angry, alien-like face on the tiles of a bathroom floor once. I also saw a cloud that looked like a steam engine. You can see any number of things if you look hard enough.
My dismissal aside, I have to admit that this story definitely has me tilting my head. I don’t remember ever hearing a story of an alien—or anything, really—riding on a cloud. In a video game or work of fiction, yes, but never in real life. Truth be told, if this story did happen as it’s described, that would make me rethink my stance on the whole “cloud-cloaking” concept. So, the story can take pride in that; I may write about that concept more in the future. For now, though, let’s go on to the next theory!
2. A hoax
I don’t think I’ve ever looked at this theory before and gone, “What can I say about this?” Today, that changed. What a tremendous accomplishment on this story’s part.
It’s a given that someone will doubt an experience another person has, regardless of whether it’s paranormal or not. In this case, I can guarantee that more than a few people will read this story and laugh at it until their sides are in orbit. There’s nothing wrong with that, mind you, but I also have no idea why Aziz would have made up this story. Mainly because I have no idea what kind of person he is (or was).
Still, if Aziz did have some reason—any reason—to make this up, then yeah, I could see it. But given the lack of information, that requires a pretty hefty leap of faith. At least, in my eyes, it does.
3. An interdimensional being
I considered not including this theory, but then I remembered the cloud-cloaking thing. Yes, I forgot that initially. My memory is magnificently bad. God, I wish it was better.
To circle back to the cloud stuff from the first theory, you may be familiar with ring-shaped clouds. If not, here’s an image of one; this one got pretty famous, and it went viral some years back:
I remember there being a fair bit of speculation on what this was. One of the more prominent theories I saw was that it was a portal of some sort. Some thought it was a portal to an alien world, while others thought it was a portal to another dimension.
Ultimately, most dismissed it as a case of pareidolia or some other naturally occurring phenomenon. Though, given the connection with clouds, along with the being in today’s story outright riding on one, I can’t help but wonder if maybe it was some interdimensional being. But maybe I’m just losing it. That would not shock me in the slightest if I’m to be honest with you all.
4. Cloud
He was trying to warn people about Sephiroth. We should have listened.
My Take
I honestly don’t think I can take a definitive stance on this story since there are so many questions I have. I’d love to know if Aziz had been drinking, had a history of mental illness, had slept well, or really anything else. I’d also love to know who he originally told this story to. It might have been a group of Russian UFO researchers, but I’m not entirely sure. The main source for this encounter—as far as I can tell—is “UFOZONE Russia,” but I can’t find any site by that name. It’s possible that it’s defunct now or that it changed its name.
Either way, the only other site I found that documented this story was fern-flower.org, which has a bunch of other strange sightings from across the globe. It also says that Aziz hid under a cloak instead of a coat. Unfortunately, that’s the only other place I can find information on this story; it’s quite frustrating since, without anything to go on, I find this to be a case that’s incredibly hard to believe in.
At the same time, that difficulty in buying into this story isn’t enough for me since I have no idea why Aziz would do that. Maybe it’s because I’ve been writing so much lately, and I’m approaching the point of burnout, but this story, in particular, highlights why I’m often hesitant to dismiss a story as a hoax. If the person has no reason to make it up, I don’t believe they would just fabricate one for the heck of it. So, with a story like this—one that is so outlandish that it would be laughed at by pretty much anyone who isn’t an ardent believer in extraterrestrials—I cannot fathom the idea of it being a hoax.
Honestly, if I needed to choose a theory, I’d probably say it was some kind of alien. However, with so little to go on, I can’t say that with much confidence. Still, it’s the only theory I do have an iota of confidence in. So, I guess it can take that to the bank. I wish I knew more about this story, though. Like, there has to be more out there, right? This cannot possibly be it. At the very least, there have to be more reports like it. I guess I know what I ought to look into at some point next year!
Conclusion
Well, that was certainly an interesting little journey. I wish there was more to it, but being able to touch upon the links between clouds and UFOs was fun; I really want to dive into that topic more down the line. Hopefully, next year or the year after. Anyway, until tomorrow, I hope you enjoyed this story, and as always, stay happy, stay healthy, and thank you for reading!
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