general
One of the most iconic cryptids in the western world, the Abominable Snowman, formally known as the Yeti, has been a subject of fascination to both loyal cryptozoologists and entertainment junkies. Accounts of a giant, manlike creature with footprints three sizes that of a man’s spurred a flurry of interest in cryptozoologist and even anthropologists in Europe and the United States.
The Yeti can be formally accredited with turning the eyes of cryptozoologists to Eastern regions in search of more mysterious and unknown creatures. Meanwhile, the Yeti itself continues to be a cryptid puzzle which brings together and crosses over the fortes of cryptozoologists and inquisitive anthropologists in search of the truth behind the myth of this creature.
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description/appearance
The average description shared between folklore and eyewitness accounts tells of a man-like biped covered in wooly fur, with a heavy brow and jaw, said to stand anywhere between five to seven feet (1.5-2m) tall.
Edward W. Cronin Jr. provides this description:
"Its body is stocky, apelike in shape, with a distinctly human quality to it, in contrast to that of a bear. It stands five-and-a-half to six feet tall and is covered with short, coarse hair, reddish-brown to black in color, sometimes with white patches on its chest. The hair is longest on the shoulders. Its face is robust, the teeth are quite large, though fangs are not present and the mouth is wide. The shape of the head is conical, with a pointed crown. The arms are long, reaching almost to the knees. The shoulders are heavy and hunched. There is no tail."
Another account was told by the Abbot of Thyangboche Monastery, telling of a biped roughly five feet tall (1.5m) with grey hair.
When local peoples were shown a variety of images to narrow down the physical description of the Yeti, Tom Slick reports “a unanimous selection, in the same order, with the first choice being the gorilla standing up, the second choice being an artists drawing of a prehistoric ape-man, Australopithecus, and the third being an orangutan standing up, which they like particularly for the long hair.”
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range/habitat
The Yeti is reported to inhabit cold-climate, mountainous regions. Eyewitness accounts have been reported in Tibet, Pakistan, and Mongolia over the years. There is much speculation as to why this is, particularly when the Gigantopithecus hypothesis is taken into consideration. It’s not a far stretch of the imagination to conclude that these far-away, solitary environments are perfect for such a rare and elusive creature. Using the unforgiving terrain to their advantage, they hide from predators and urban sprawl in order to survive.
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history/origin
The earliest known written account of the Yeti can be found in a natural history manuscript prepared in China in the late 18th century. This manuscript tells of a Mongolian ‘man-animal’ in a context entirely lacking in typical exaggeration and flourish found in fictional works of the same style, time era, and geographic location. Because of the lack of fictional embellishment found in the manuscript and stark similarities to formal and non-fiction manuscripts, anthropologists are lead to believe that this particular piece of work regarding the Mongolian ‘man-animal’ – or Yeti – was written in a manner deemed as factual at that time and place.
Folklore and myth featuring the Yeti is prominent in many cultures of the Himalayas. The name ‘Yeti’ is a Sherpa word, roughly translated into ‘that-there thing’.
In his book ‘Among the Himalayas’ (1899), Major L. A. Waddell stated “The belief in these creatures is universal among Tibetans…”
Mr. J. Gent’s discovery of prints in 1915 were identified by locals as belonging to a race of giant, wild men, whose feet point the opposite direction to where they would walk. This particular characteristic falls in step with folklore and mythology worldwide regarding ghosts, evil spirits, trickster gods and other paranormal creatures who are cast in a villain or antihero light in the telling of these stories.
Myths of ‘Wild Men’ perpetuate practically every continent and indigene folklore across the world and the Yeti’s relation to the people of the Himalayas is no different. Relics depicting a creature which looks eerily similar to the Yeti can still be found enshrined in Nepalese monasteries.
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timeline/major sightings
The earliest known written account of the Yeti can be found in a natural history manuscript prepared in China in the late 18th century, as mentioned in the ‘History/Origin’ section of this article.
1832: Guides in the company of B. H. Hodgeson witnessed a tall, bipedal creature covered in long dark hair, which seemed to fear them and flee. B. H. Hodgeson did not personally see the creature and concluded, based on the descriptions provided by his guides that the creature in question was an orangutan. This account was published in James Prinsep’s ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal’.
1889: Major L. A. Waddell reported a discovery of footprints in his book, ‘Among the Himalayas’. His guide described a large, apelike creature that left the footprints, while Waddell concluded they were the marks of a bear. Waddell, in general, was unimpressed with previous eyewitness accounts of these creatures.
1915: Prints discovered by forestry officer Mr. J Grant in Sikkim, said to be between about eighteen to twenty-four inches (0.4-0.6m) long.
1920s: The 1920s gave birth to an enthusiastic American interest in exploring far-away mountainous regions, and the Himalayas were an ideal fascination. Because of regular expeditions into the unforgiving climate of the Himalayas, many explorers would return with reports of strange creatures or unusual tracks.
The first eyewitness account from the Western world was by Colonel C.K. Howard-Bury, who retold of large, man-like shapes observed drifting through the Lhapka-Lah pass of the Tibetan region of the Himalayas in the early 1920’s. On September 22 of the year 1921, he would also find footprints in the clean, white snow which outsized an average man’s footprint by three times.
1925: N. A. Tombazi, photographer and member of the Royal Geographical Society, writes his account after witnessing a creature near Zemu Glacier, 15,000 feet (4.6km) above sea level. ‘…Unquestionably, the figure in outline was exactly like a human being, walking upright and stopping occasionally to pull at some dwarf rhododendron bushes. It showed up dark against the snow, and as far as I could make out, wore no clothes Within the next minute or so it had moved onto some thick scrub and was lost to view.’
1951: Mount Everest. Eric Shipton photographs a number of prints found in the snow at 20,000 feet (6km) above sea level. These pictures have gone on to be hailed as evidence of the Yeti’s existence by some, while dismissed by others as prints made by common animals, distorted by melting snow.
1953: Mount Everest. Large footprints spotted by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
1954: Symbolic indigenous paintings of the Yeti were photographed by ‘Snowman Expedition’ Leader, John Angelo Jackson at Tengboche Gompa on their way to Kangchenjunga. Jackson tracked and photographed many prints in the snow, most identifiable, while others could not be identified. Notably the large, flattened footprint-like tracks.
1957: American oil businessman Tom Slick funded expeditions to investigate Yeti reports.
1958: Edmund Hillary organized an expedition to collect and analyze physical evidence of the Yeti. He sent a supposed 350-year-old Yeti ‘scalp’, found in the Khumjung Monestary, to the West for testing. Conclusions indicated the scalp was from the skin of a serow (a Himalayan antelope). Anthropologist Myra Shackley disagreed, saying “Hairs from the scalp look distinctly monkey-like and that it contains parasitic mites of a species different from that recovered from the serow.”
1959: Supposed Yeti feces collected by Slick expedition. Analysis found a parasite which could not be classified. Cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans wrote “Since each animal has its own parasites, this indicated that the host animal is equally an unknown animal.”
1959: Peter Byrne located an alleged Yeti hand preserved at a lamasery in Pangboche, Nepal. He convinced the lamas to allow him to study the remains in solitude. He then removed tissue samples from what is now known as the Pangboche Hand and replaced them with human ones secured from primatologist W. C. Osman Hill. He had this to say in his letter dated February 3:
“I shall not go into detail of how we got the thumb and phalanx of the Pangboche Hand. The main thing is we have them, and that the lamas of the monastery do not know that we have them. Because they do not know, it is of the utmost importance that there is [sic] no news release on this or any publicity for some time…the Pangboche Hand is still complete, as far as the lamas are concerned.”
It was easy enough to smuggle the tissue samples stolen from the Pangboche Hand from Nepal into India. However, it was considerably more difficult to smuggle them out of India with consideration of much more rigid customs procedures. Co-sponsor of the expedition, Kirk Johnson, knew of close friends staying in Calcutta, actor James Stewart and his wife, Gloria.
They wrapped the Pangboche Hand samples in underwear, hid them snugly in their luggage, and smuggled them to London, where they were delivered to Johnson and then to Hill on February 20th. Analysis by Hill concluded the samples to be human, although in later years he adjusted his statement to claim the tissue were from a Neanderthal specimen. Later analysis by Charles A. Leone, zoologist, concluded without being able to find a positive identification.
1970: Mountaineer Don Whillans claimed to have heard odd cries as he scaled the Annapurna Peaks in Nepal. His Sherpa guide told him it was a Yeti’s call. Later that night, he witnessed dark, humanoid shapes moving near the camp. The following morning, he observed human-like footprints in the snow. Later that evening he claimed to have watched a bipedal, ape-like creature search for food for twenty minutes.
1972: Biologists Edward Cronin and Jeffery McNelly found tracks outside their tents as they traveled through the Arun Valley of Nepal. These tracks were supposedly left sometime during the previous night. Casts were made and taken back to the West to be analyzed by Dr. George Scheller. He stated that the casts held a close resemblance to the mountain gorilla, but could not specifically pinpoint a known animal which could have caused the tracks.
1984: Mountaineer David P. Sheppard claimed to be followed by a large, furry man for several days on his expedition to Mount Everest. Photographs taken by Sheppard have proven to be inconclusive.
1993: Four alleged Yeti prints were found in Hjage-Hungla, Meruk-Sakter, located in east-central Bhutan. The casts made from these prints are currently on display in the Thumplu Bhutan Forestry Department office.
1995: Cryptozoologist Lauren Coleman received a call from Pakistani citizens claiming to have a Yeti specimen found preserved in ice, similar to the Minnesota Ice Man. Calls to confirm and move forward on the investigation have yet to be returned.
2001: Hair samples were collected from an alleged Yeti nest in Bhutan and returned to the West for DNA sequencing. Oxford Molecular Biologist, Bryan Sykes, claimed the DNA sequencing was unsuccessful. He told Smithsonian Magazine in an interview “We normally would not have any difficulty at all. It (the sample) had hallmarks of good material. It’s not a human, it’s not a bear, nor anything else that we have been able to so far identify. We’ve never encountered any DNA that we couldn’t sequence by. But then, we weren’t looking for a Yeti…I didn’t think this would end in a mystery.”
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suspected hoaxesThe Yeti has a history rooted firmly within the beliefs in indigenous peoples and deep into the minds and imaginations of everyone from scientists and thrill-seekers. Because of the Yeti’s far-reaching and ongoing popularity, hoaxes pop up from time to time, whether money, fame, or entertainment is the reasoning behind them.
March 19, 1954: Expedition teams obtained hair specimens from what was alleged to be a Yeti scalp found in a Pangboche monastery. Dark brown to black in dim light, yet the samples threw a fox red color in direct sunlight.
Professor Frederic Wood Jones, expert in human and comparative anatomy, did the analysis. The hairs were bleached, cut into sections and analyzed microscopically, microphotographs were taken, and comparisons were made to known animals (such as bears and orangutans). Conclusion? The hairs were not actually from a scalp, as no known animal has a ridge (or part) running from the base of the forehead to the nape of the neck.
Still, Jones was unable to name specifically what animal the sample hairs were taken from. He confidently reported that the hairs were not from a bear or an ape. His hypothesis stated the hairs could be from the shoulder of coarse-haired hoofstock.
1956: Slawomir Rawicz told of encountering two humanoid biped animals during his expedition to the Himalayas in 1940. The entire account has been revealed to be wholly fabricated.
1958: Slick expedition acquires a supposed Yeti hand. Forensic testing proved it to be the forearm and paw of a snow leopard.
1996:
The Snow Walker Film was created by Fox Television Network for use in Paramount’s UPN show, ‘Paranormal Borderland’. This hoax footage is extremely elaborate and believable in its production.
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proposed explanations
There are a variety of both fascinating and utterly mundane explanations used to shed light on the Yeti and the phenomena surrounding it.
Himalayan Red, Brown, and Blue Bears has been a candidate more than once to explain the tracks many mountaineers, scientists and locals have found in the snow. The Himalayan Red Bear is also said to be what was really witnessed on those stormy, snowing days, when eyewitness accounts could describe only vague, biped shapes and movement. These animals are known to stand at roughly five feet to seven feet tall. The Himalayan Brown Bear inhabits the foothills of the Himalayas to northern Pakistan. The Himalayan blue bear inhabits the eastern Tibetan plateaus of the Himalayas.
Another explanation which has garnered interest and tentative agreement from noted anthropologists and cryptozoologists is the survival of Gigantopithecus. Formally known as an extinct species of ape which inhabited the areas known now as China, India, and Vietnam some one-million to three-thousand years ago, Gigantopithecus was a formidable beast, standing up to ten feet tall and weighing around 1,200 pounds (544kg).
Noted cryptozoologist Bernard Huevelmans linked Gigantopithecus to the Yeti, saying “For giant apes, still agile, no longer able to live in trees, mountains are evidently the most suitable habitat and safest refuge. In Gigantopithecus, which used to live in China, the high Himalayas were the obvious shelter. There, out of the reach of enemies, they could have survived until today, just as their contemporaries have survived in the marshy forests of Borneo and Sumatra.”
In the 1973 book ‘Bigfoot: The Yeti, and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality’, Dr. John Napier, former director of the Primate Biology Program of the Smithsonian Institution, stated “It is possible that these creatures, though by anthropologists to be long extinct, survived in refuge areas such as some of the deep forested river gorges of the Himalayan range until relatively recent times...”
An explanation for the wealth and variety of alleged Yeti tracks found in the pristine snow of the Himalayas was proposed by Dr. Robert K. Enders, a zoologist at the Swarthmore College of Pennsylvania. Dr. Enders reported that he witnessed a specific type of footwear in the Kasmir region, a ‘snow sandal’ made of rough, woven branches and leaves used to protect a traveler’s feet from the sharp ice. These ‘snow sandals’ would eventually wear, starting first at the heel, ball, and toes of the feet, possibly leaving an oversized print very similar to that of a human’s foot.
Another explanation is the defacement of tracks left by perfectly average indigenous wildlife – foxes, wolves, bears, and snow leopards. A loping gate, a bright sun, or sudden wind could, theoretically, turn otherwise average tracks into something decidedly unusual. An example of this could be seen in Dr. Lawrence Swan’s experience in searching for the Yeti. Formerly a fervent supporter of the hypothesized existence of the Yeti, his firm stance was made known in a series of letters on the subject published in Science Magazine in 1957 and 1958. Dr. Swan was a native to India and a world-renown high-altitude ecology expert.
He accompanied Marlin Perkins and Edmund Hillary on their expedition to the Himalayas in 1960, and was thrilled to find what he supposed were Yeti tracks. It wasn’t long in following these alleged Yeti tracks
that he found himself standing over the unaltered tracks of a fox or a small wolf.
Perhaps our fascination with the Yeti speaks of a genetic, psychological memory. In the magazine Genus (1967) Ivan Sanderson first discusses the possibility of depictions of the Yeti and other similar humanoid bipeds to be a manifestation of folk and/or primitive memory of the Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon.
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influence on culture
The Yeti has captured imaginations worldwide, well-known by its misnomer, ‘The Abominable Snowman’. The name was coined by Calcutta Statesman newspaper columnist, Henry Newman in 1921.
Newman’s mistake was caused, in part, by C. K. Howard-Bury’s mistranslation of the Sherpa word meh-teh as ‘metoh kangmi’, translated, roughly, ‘man-sized wild creature’, although both phrases carry much of the same meaning, ‘meh-teh’ carrys a more general adjective context. The confusion was compounded when Newman further mistranslated to ‘metch kangmi’. This, with a good dose of artistic license, was passed off as Tibetan for ‘Abominable Snowman.’ These stories from such far-away places of such a mysterious creature became a favorite of readers in the West.
This journey of language barriers and a somewhat odd literary game of telephone is how the name ‘Abominable Snowman’ came about as a widespread reference to the Yeti.
The Yeti can be found in a wide variety of television shows, from science fiction to children’s cartoons such as Scooby Doo and ‘Rudolph: The Red Nosed Reindeer’. The Yeti has been featured in attractions at both Disneyland Southern California and Walt Disney World Resort’s Animal Kingdom in Florida. Popular as many cryptids are with subculture and independent fashion and artists, ebay, etsy, and quirky online stores carry many Yeti-themed products, from t-shirts to plush toys. The Wampa shown in the wildly popular Star Wars franchise also bears many similarities to the media-fueled idea of the Yeti.
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