The Yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman, is a legendary creature that is said to inhabit Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet, home of the famous Mount Everest. Descriptions of the Yeti vary, but it is typically depicted as a large, ape-like creature with white or grey fur, long arms, and a humanoid face. Some accounts describe it as standing upright like a human, while others describe it as being more ape-like and walking on all fours.
Regarded in the scientific community to be a legend due to a lack of conclusive evidence, the Yeti remains to be one of the most sought out creatures in the cryptozoology field along with its “cousin”, Bigfoot, which is of North America. As a national symbol and key source of income, the government of Nepal officially declared the Yeti to exist in 1961.
The legend of the Yeti has also been embraced by Western culture, and the creature has become a popular subject in books, movies, and other forms of media. In the 1950s and 1960s, for example, the Yeti became a popular subject in the media, and there have been many expeditions undertaken to search for the Yeti over the years. Some people believe that the Yeti is a real animal that has yet to be discovered and classified by science, while others believe it is a myth or legend.
The Yeti has been regularly seen since 1832 around Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, Mongolia, and other nearby regions as the Himalayas provide many areas such as hidden caves where the large population of these creatures are said to occupy, however these areas are not quite accessible to the common man. The first reliable report didn’t appear until 1925 by a Greek photographer, N.A. Tombazi who was working as a member of a British geological expedition through the Himalayas. Tombazi, on his expedition noticed an upright standing creature walking in the distance around 15,000 feet. Before he could capture it on film, the mysterious figure had disappeared but not without leaving large human-like footprints behind.
A Lieutenant-Colonel by the name of Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury led an expedition through the Himalayas known as the “Everest Reconnaissance Expedition” which he documented in his book, Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, written in 1921. In his book is where he describes seeing dark shapes moving about in the snow while crossing the “Lhakpa-la” at 21,000 feet. Upon reaching the site where this mysterious creature was lurking, he recounts noticing unusual, human-like footprints in the snow. One of his Sherpa guides added that the tracks must be that of “The Wild Man of the Snows”. The translator now incorrectly interpreted it at metoh-kangmi, which closely means “Abominable Snowman”. Other terms used by the Himalayan population do not translate the same but still refer to the legendary creature such as Meh-teh, meaning “man-bear”; Dzu-teh meaning “cattle bear”; and rakshasa which is Sanskrit for “demon”. The term Yeti in Tibetan language means “magical creature” and the belief in these beasts is ubiquitous amongst the Tibetan people.
In Bhutan, for example, the Yeti is known as the “Migoi,” and is said to be a powerful, supernatural being that can take on different forms. In Nepal, the Yeti is known as the “Maharal,” and is often depicted as a large, hairy, ape-like creature that dwells in the high mountains.
One of the most famous stories about the Yeti involves Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to successfully climb Mount Everest. In 1960, Hillary led an expedition to search for the Yeti, taking with him a team of climbers and scientists. Although the expedition was unable to find any definitive proof of the Yeti’s existence, they did collect several mysterious footprints that were later claimed to belong to the creature.
In recent years, other expeditions to search for the Yeti have also been undertaken over the years, with some people claiming to have encountered the creature or to have found evidence of its existence. For example, there have been reports of strange, ape-like creatures being sighted in the Himalayas, and some people have claimed to have found hairs or other DNA evidence of an unknown primate in the Himalayas that could potentially be the Yeti, while others have disputed these claims.
In 1959, on an expedition trip to the Himalayas, Yeti droppings were recovered and brought into labs for further investigations. There seemed to be a new species of nematode worm discovered amongst these droppings, and according to scientists, were only to be linked to one type of animal. With never been linked to any other animal in history, proved more evidence of the Yeti existence.
Reports of an alleged Yeti attack occurred near Mount Everest in 1974, the victim was Lhakpa Domani and her yaks she was managing. She had described the attacking beast as a large ape-like creature with brown and black hair who picked her up and had thrown her quite the distance. Her brother soon found her alive, but wounded and unconscious, while the yaks lay dead, half eaten with large footprints surrounding them.
With many Westerners making determined attempts at scaling the mountains throughout the Himalayas, the frequency of reports has drastically risen during the 20th century with sightings of strange creatures and strange tracks. Could all this point to the strange phenomena which is known as the Yeti? Seeing as how the Nepal government had declared its existence since 1961, only time will tell.