The Yeti or Abominable Snowman is an apelike animal cryptid said to inhabit the Himalaya region of Nepal and Tibet. The names Yeti and Meh-Teh are commonly used by the people indigenous to the region,^[1] and are part of their history and mythology. Nepalese have various names for Yeti like "Bonmanche" which means "wild man" or "Kanchanjunga rachyyas" which means "Kanchanjunga's demon."

Although the scientific community largely dismisses the Yeti as a fraud supported by legend and weak evidence,^[2] it remains one of the most famous creatures of cryptozoology, the study of unconfirmed animals. The Yeti can be considered a Himalayan parallel to the Sasquatch or man-beast.

Name variations

The name Yeti is derived from the Tibetan je-tiet (Tibetan: གཡའ་དྲེད་, Wylie: g.ya' dred), a compound of the words yeh (Tibetan: གཡའ་, Wylie: g.ya'), meaning "rocky" or "rocky place", and pe-tah (Tibetan: དྲེད་, Wylie: dred), which translates as "bear", the full name being "rock bear".^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Pranavananda^[3] states that the words "ti", "te" and "teh" are derived from the spoken word 'tre' (spelled "dred"), Tibetan for bear, with the 'r' so softly pronounced as to be almost inaudible, thus making it "te" or "teh".^[3][7][8]

Other terms used by Himalayan peoples do not translate exactly the same, but refer to legendary and indigenous wildlife:

• Jo-bran, Kang Admi, Mir ka, Migoi, Dzu-teh, Meh-teh (Tibetan: མི་དྲེད་, Wylie: mi dred) translates as "man-bear"^[5][7][9]
• Dzu-teh - 'dzu' translates as "cattle" and the full meaning translates as "cattle bear" and is the Himalayan Red Bear.^{[4][10][8][11][7]}
• Migoi or Mi-go (Tibetan: མི་རྒོད་, Wylie: mi rgod) (pronounced mey-goo) translates as "wild man".^[11][8]
• Mirka - another name for "wild-man", however as local legend has it "anyone who sees one dies or is killed". The latter is taken from a written statement by Frank Smythe's sherpas in 1937.^[12]
• Kang Admi - "Snow Man"^[11]
• Jo-bran - "Man-beast"

Himalayan wildlife attributed to the Yeti sightings include the Chu-Teh, a Langur monkey [1] living at lower altitudes, the Tibetan Blue Bear, the Himalayan Brown Bear and the Dzu-Teh (commonly known as the Himalayan Red Bear).[2]

The term Yeti is often used to describe various reported creatures:

• A large apelike biped (that some suggest could be a Gigantopithecus)
• Human-sized bipedal apes (the Almas and the Chinese wildman)
• Dwarflike creatures (such as the Orang Pendek).

The term is often used to refer to creatures fitting any of the aforementioned descriptions. For example, the fear liath has been dubbed as the "Scottish Yeti".

The "Abominable Snowman"

The appellation "Abominable Snowman" was not coined until 1921, the same year Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury led the Royal Geographical Society's "Everest Reconnaissance Expedition"^[13][14] which he chronicled in Mount Everest The Reconnaissance, 1921^[15] In the book, Howard-Bury includes an account of crossing the "Lhakpa-la" at 21,000 feet (6400 m) where he found footprints that he believed "were probably caused by a large 'loping' grey wolf, which in the soft snow formed double tracks rather like a those of a barefooted man". He adds that his Sherpa guides "at once volunteered that the tracks must be that of "The Wild Man of the Snows", to which they gave the name "metoh-kangmi".^[15] "Metoh" translates as "man-bear" and "Kang-mi" translates as "snowman".^{[3][5][16][11]}

A bit of confusion exists between Howard-Bury's recitation of the term "metoh-kangmi"^{[13] [15]} and the term used in H.W. Tilman's book Mount Everest, 1938^[17] where Tilman had used the words "metch" (which may not exist in the Tibetan language)^[18] and "kangmi" when relating the coining of the term "Abominable Snowman".^{[17][5][19][11]} Further evidence of "metch" being a misnomer is provided by Tibetan language authority Professor David Snellgrove from the School of Oriental Studies in London (ca. 1956), who dismissed the word "metch" as impossible, because the consonants "t-c-h" cannot be conjoined in the Tibetan language."^[18] Documentation suggests that the term "metch-kangmi" is derived from one source (from the year 1921).^[20] It has been suggested that "metch" is simply a misspelling of "metoh".

Like the legend itself, the origin of the term "Abominable Snowman" is rather colourful. It began when Mr Henry Newman, a longtime contributor to The Statesman in Calcutta (using the pen name "Kim")^[6], interviewed the porters of the "Everest Reconnaissance expedition" upon their return to Darjeeling,^{[21][22][17][23]}. Newman mistranslated the word "metoh" as "filthy" or "dirty", substituting the term "abominable", perhaps out of artistic license. ^[24] As author H.W. Tilman's recounts, "[Newman] wrote long after in a letter to The Times: The whole story seemed such a joyous creation I sent it to one or two newspapers'".^[17]

Events and studies

19th century

In 1832, the Journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal published trekker B. H. Hodgson's account of the Yeti in northern Nepal. His native guides spotted a tall, bipedal creature covered with long dark hair, which seemed to flee in fear. Hodgson did not see the creature, but concluded it was an orangutan.

An early record of reported footprints appeared in 1889 in L.A. Waddell's Among the Himalayas. Waddell reported his guide's description of a large apelike creature that left the prints, which Waddell concluded were actually made by a bear. Waddell heard stories of bipedal, apelike creatures, but wrote that of the many witnesses he questioned, none "could ever give ... an authentic case. On the most superficial investigation it always resolved into something that somebody had heard of." [3]

Early 20th century

The frequency of reports increased during the early 20th century, when Westerners began making determined attempts to scale the many mountains in the area and occasionally reported seeing odd creatures or strange tracks.

In 1925, N.A. Tombazi, a photographer and member of the Royal Geographical Society, writes that he saw a creature at about 15,000 ft (4572 m) near Zemu Glacier. Tombazi later wrote that he observed the creature from about 200 or 300 yards (270 m), for about a minute. "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." About two hours later, Tombazi and his companions descended the mountain, and saw what they assumed to be the creature's prints, described as "similar in shape to those of a man, but only six to seven inches (178 mm) long by four inches wide... The prints were undoubtedly those of a biped."

The Pangboche Scalp

The Daily Mail Expedition of 1954, on March 19 printed an article which described expedition teams obtaining hair specimens from a scalp found in Pangboche monastery. The hair was analysed by Professor Frederic Wood Jones, F.R.S, D.Sc., (who died on September 29 1954^[25][26]) and an expert in human and comparative anatomy.

The research consisted of taking microphotographs of the hairs and comparing them with hairs from known animals such as bears and orangutans. Professor Woods-Jones concluded that the hairs of the Pangboche scalp were not actually from a scalp. He contended that some animals do have a ridge of hair extending from the pate to the back, but no animals have a ridge (as in the Pangboche relic) running from the base of the forehead across the pate and ending at the nape of the neck.

The hairs were black to dark brown in colour in dim light, and fox red in sunlight. None of the hairs had been dyed. During the study, the hairs were bleached, cut into sections and analysed microscopically. Wood-Jones was unable to pinpoint the animal from which the Pangboche hairs were taken. He was, however, convinced that the hairs were not of a bear or anthropoid ape. He suggested that the hairs were not from the head of a coarse-haired hoofed animal, but from its shoulder.^[27]

Late 20th century

Western interest in the Yeti peaked dramatically in the 1950s. While attempting to scale Mount Everest in 1951, Eric Shipton took photographs of a number of large prints in the snow, at about 6,000 m (19,685 ft) above sea level. These photos have been subject to intense scrutiny and debate. Some argue they are the best evidence of Yeti's existence, while others contend the prints to be from a mundane creature, and have been distorted by the melting snow.

In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reported seeing large footprints while scaling Mount Everest. But Hillary would later discount Yeti reports as unreliable. In his first autobiography Tenzing said that he believed the Yeti was a large ape, and although he had never seen it himself his father had seen one twice, but in his second autobiography he said he had become much more skeptical about its existence.^[28]

During the Daily Mail Snowman Expedition of 1954,^[29] the largest search of its kind, the mountaineering leader John Angelo Jackson, made the first trek from Everest to Kangchenjunga during which he photographed symbolic paintings of the Yeti at Thyangboche Gompa.^[30] Jackson tracked and photographed many footprints in the snow, most of which were identifiable. However, there were many large footprints which could not be identified. The flattened footprint-like indentations were attributed to erosion and subsequent widening of the original footprint by wind and particles.

Beginning in 1957, wealthy American oilman Tom Slick funded a few missions to investigate Yeti reports. In 1959, supposed Yeti feces were collected by Slick's expedition; fecal analysis found a parasite which could not be classified. Bernard Heuvelmans wrote, "Since each animal has its own parasites, this indicated that the host animal is equally an unknown animal." ^[31]

In 1959, actor James Stewart, while visiting India, reportedly smuggled remains of a supposed Yeti, the so-called Pangboche Hand, by concealing it in his luggage when he flew from India to London.^[32]

In 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary mounted an expedition to collect and analyze physical evidence of the Yeti. He sent a Yeti "scalp" from the Khumjung monastery to the West for testing, whose results indicated the scalp to be manufactured from the skin of the serow, a goat-like Himalayan antelope. But some disagreed with this analysis. Myra Shackley said that the "hairs from the scalp look distinctly monkey-like, and that it contains parasitic mites of a species different from that recovered from the serow."^{[citation needed]} (See: Blue Bear)

In 1970, British mountaineer Don Whillans claims to have witnessed a creature when scaling Annapurna. While scouting for a campsite, Whillans heard some odd cries which his Sherpa guide attributed to a Yeti's call. That very night, Whillans saw a dark shape moving near his camp. The next day, he observed a few human-like footprints in the snow, and that evening, viewed with binoculars a bipedal, apelike creature for 20 minutes as it apparently searched for food not far from his camp. ^{[citation needed]} Nothing was seen again.

In 1984, famed mountaineer David P. Sheppard of Hoboken, NJ, was near the southern Col of Everest and claims to have been followed by a large, furry man over the course of several days. His sherpas, however, say they saw no such thing. He claims to have taken a photograph, but a later study of it proved inconclusive.

21st century

In early December 2007, American television presenter Josh Gates and his team reported finding a series of footprints in the Everest region of Nepal resembling descriptions of Yeti.^[33] Each of the footprints were measured 33 cm in length - longer than a ruler - with five toes that measured a total of 25 cm across. Casts were made of the prints for further research. The footprints were examined by an expert who believed them to be too physiologically accurate to be fake or man made. The expert also stated that they were very similar to a pair of bigfoot footprints that were found in another area.

On July 7, 2008, the BBC news programme The World Today broadcast an interview with wildlife artist Pollyanna Pickering, who said she had been shown a yeti scalp and had drawn a picture of a yeti based on descriptions by local people. See transcript in footnote: ^[34]

Analysis

In his book Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality,^[2] primatologist John Napier provides firsthand reports and analysis on the subject, and argues that amongst the evidence for the Yeti, "unlike the Sasquatch, there is little uniformity of pattern, and what uniformity there is incriminates the bear."

In 2003, Japanese mountaineer Makoto Nebuka published the results of his twelve year linguistic study postulating that the word "Yeti" is actually a corruption of the word "meti", a regional dialect term for "bear". As in other traditional cultures, the ethnic Tibetans fear and worship the bear as a supernatural being.^[35] Nebuka's claims were subject to almost immediate criticism, and was accused of linguistic carelessness. Dr Raj Kumar Pandey, who has researched both Yetis and mountain languages, said "it is not enough to blame tales of the mysterious beast of the Himalayas on words that rhyme but mean different things."^[36]

After reviewing eyewitness accounts and physical evidence, many cryptozoologists ^[who?] have concluded that Yeti reports are misidentification of mundane creatures. Even well-financed expeditions have turned up no positive evidence of its existence. One well publicized expedition to Bhutan reported that a hair sample had been obtained that, after DNA analysis by Prof. Bryan Sykes, could not be matched to any known animal.^[37] Analysis completed after the media release, however, clearly showed that the samples were from the Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) and the Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus).^[38]

In 1997, South Tyrolean mountaineer Reinhold Messner claimed to have a face-to-face encounter with a Yeti. He has since written a book, My Quest for the Yeti, and claims to have actually killed one. According to Messner, the Yeti is actually the endangered Himalayan Brown Bear, Ursus arctos isabellinus, that can walk upright or on all fours.^[39]

Enthusiasts speculate that these reported creatures could be present-day specimens of the extinct giant ape Gigantopithecus, as the only evidence recovered from Gigantopithecus (other than teeth) are jawbone remains indicating a skull atop a vertical spinal column (as in hominines and other bipedal apes such as Oreopithecus). However, while the Yeti is generally described as bipedal, most scientists believe Gigantopithecus to be quadrupedal, and so massive that, unless it evolved specifically as a bipedal ape (like Oreopithecus and the hominids), walking upright would have been even more difficult for the now extinct primate than it is for its extant quadrupedal relative, the orangutan.

There is a famous Yeti hoax, known as the snow walker film, created by Fox television network, in an attempt to deceive the public. The footage was created for Paramount's UPN show, Paranormal Borderland, ostensibly by the show's producers. The show ran from March 12 to August 6, 1996. Its origins had nothing to do with Fox Television, although Fox purchased and used the footage in their later program on The World's Greatest Hoaxes. ^[40]

"Mysteries of the Unexplained," published in 1982 by the Reader's Digest, contains the following unattributed quote on page 157: "The Yeti has been sensationalized out of all proportion to reality. To the Sherpas there is nothing mysterious about it; the creature has been part of their lives and recollections for at least 200 years. Himalayan villagers and hunters include it as just another animal when discussing local fauna. If it seems elusive, it is because its habitat lies far from human paths....Its home is in the highest Himalayan forests, deep in almost impenetrable thickets. When it ventures into the snow area...it walks upright...The Sherpas suggest its reason for crossing the snowfields is to seek a saline moss that grows on the rocks of moraines. Ivan Sanderson says it is not moss they seek but lichens, which are rich in food value."

In 1980 a Chinese team found a dozen nests, some in trees and some on the ground, in an area called Fengshuyang in Zhejiang Province. ^[41]

In 2004, Henry Gee, editor of the prestigious magazine Nature, argued that creatures like Yetis deserved further study, writing, "The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures such as Yetis are founded on grains of truth ... Now, cryptozoology, the study of such fabulous creatures, can come in from the cold."^[42]

In popular culture

The Yeti has become a cultural icon, appearing in movies, books and video games. The creature is usually depicted as the scary "Abominable Snowman", but is occasionally shown as being misunderstood or used as comic relief.

Perhaps the most famous example in American popular culture is from the Christmas classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The Yeti is called the Abominable Snow Monster, or "The Bumble" by other characters in the story.

In the popular movie series Star Wars, the creature called the Wampa that captures Luke Skywalker is based on the Yeti in appearance and the habitat it lives in.

Hergé used the Yeti as a main character in Tintin in Tibet, as the Yeti actually saves Tintin's friend Chang (see illustration).

In the video game Destroy All Humans 2, Russian Yeti sightings are revealed to be caused by an Alien species called the Blisk. However, while basically humanoid in shape the Blisk do not resemble the traditional Yeti appearance (the Blisk are reptillian with crab-like characteristics).

In the video games Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl, the Pokemon Abomasnow is based on the Yeti. In the Pokédex, Abomasnow is described as the "Abominable Snowman" of the Pokémon universe.

In the video game Final Fantasy 6, a yeti named Umaro is a optional boss that will join the party only if you defeat him and have Mog in party.

In the video game Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2, the Yeti is the boss animal on the final stage.

In the video game Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, you have to free a Yeti in a monastery.

In the video game Tomb Raider II, Lara Croft encounters several Yeti's in Tibet.

The Yeti is featured in Expedition Everest at Disney World's Animal Kingdom. The Yeti (in the form of a computer generated shadow and a large robotic creature) attacks a mountain train. In 2007, Animal Kingdom also opened The Yak and Yeti restaurant. The restaurant has a new Asian inspired full serve restaurant in the Anandapur section. There is also be a counter service option available as well as a retail section featuring sushi ware, teapots and chopsticks.

In the action cartoon Johnny Quest, one of his adventures takes him to a Tibetian monastery where men dressed as Yetis are eventually killed by a real one.

In the song "Friday Afternoon" by Ska band Dabe and His Good Buds, a Yeti named Doug is found in a cave and befriended by the band.

In the animated TV series Tiny Toons Adventures, Buster Bunny travels up the Himmalayas and gets ambushed by the abominable snowman, who is literally a giant snowman with nunchucks.

In the graphic novel Books of Doom, young Victor Von Doom is attacked by a Yeti. Unlike most incarnations, this version of the Yeti has a less human wolf-like head.

In the popular game Ski Free the abominable snowman, or yeti, chases after you at a certain point and eats you (unless you escape).

In the Disney/Pixar movie, Monsters, Inc., it is revealed that the Abominable Snowman is a monster banished from the Monster world for reasons not mentioned. In this incarnation, the yeti is quite friendly and dislikes the name "Abominable Snowman" and makes snow cones.

Yeti are a common monster in the Mountains of the MMORPG MapleStory, and come in a number of varieties.

Yetis appear in Diablo II, Act 1 as a white textured brute in the monastery near the Horadric malus.

In the Scooby-Doo: Where are You episode "That's Snow Ghost", the mystery gang encounter a yeti who turns out to be the lodge clerk.

In the animated film, Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!, the mystery gang travel to the snowy Himalayas and bump into the Abomnible Snowman.

In one episode of The Backyardigans, Pablo the Penguin (playing as the yeti) goes to the Frozen North to search for the igloo and sings a song called Yeti Stomp. Tyrone and Uniqua search for him accompanied by self-proclaimed Frozen North expert Tasha who insists that there's no such thing as a yeti.

In the popular book franchise Goosebumps, R.L. Stine's book "The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena" features a family that finds a frozen Yeti in Alaska and brings it back to the suburbs of southern California.

Terry Pratchett's book "Thief of Time" posits an interesting way for the Yeti (as a species) to survive multiple extinctions. This ability is a fairly important plot point of the book.

In the Hindi Bollywood movie, "Ajooba Kudrat Kaa" [1990], there is a story of a girl who befriends a giant Yeti. The movie was directed and produced by Shyam and Tulsi Ramsay, infamous for their horror movies in India.

In his supernatural horror stories The Whisperer in Darkness and At the Mountains of Madness, author H.P. Lovecraft uses the phrase "Abominable Snow-Men" synonymously with his fictitious Mi-Go, although he describes Mi-Go very differently from the usual conception of yeti.

In the Mighty Boosh episode 'Call of the Yeti', Howard, Vince, Naboo and Bollo are turned into hippies by five yetis before being rescued by Kodiak Jack, whom the yetis then breed with.

In Ragnarök Online, Sasquatch is a monster who lives in a snowy city. He looks like a white, large, biped bear.

In the popular MMORPG RuneScape the king of the Miscellania area has been cursed and turned into a Yeti. requiring the player's avatar to become the new king and marry the king's daughter.

In the Webcomic Irregular Webcomic the Yeti is a friend of Steve Irwin.

In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, two yetis, Yeto and Yeta, live in the fifth dungeon, Snowpeak Ruins.

The Abominable Snowman is Monster in My Pocket #74.

References

• John Napier (primatologist) (MRCS, IRCS, DSC) "Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality" 1972 ISBN 0-525-06658-6.
• Sir Francis Younghusband The Epic of Mount Everest by 1926, Edward Arnold & Co. The expedition that inadvertently coined the term "Abominable Sbowman"
• Charles Howard-Bury, "Mount Everest The Reconnaissance", 1921, Edward Arnold, ISBN 1-135-39935-2.
• H.W. Tilman, "Mount Everest 1938", Appendix B, pp. 127-137, Pilgrim Publishing. ISBN 81-7769-175-9.
• John A. Jackson, More than Mountains, Chapter 10 (pp 92) & 11, "Prelude to the Snowman Expedition & The Snowman Expedition", George Harrap & Co, 1954
• Ralph Izzard, The Abominable Snowman Adventure, this is the detailed account by the Daily Mail correspondent on the 1954 expedition to find the "Snowman", Hodder and Staoughton, 1955.
• Charles Stonor, The Sherpa and the Snowman, recounts the 1955 Dail Mail "Abominable Snowman Expedition" by the scientific officer of the expedition, this is a very detailed analysis of not just the "Snowman" but the flora and fauna of the Himalaya and its people. Hollis and Carter, 1955.
• John A. Jackson, Adventure Travels in the Himalaya Chapter 17, "Everest and the Elusive Snowman", 1954 updated material, Indus Publishing Company, 2005, ISBN 81-7387-175-2.
• Jerome Clark, Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena, Visible Ink Press, 1993.
• Bernard Heuvelmans, On the Track of Unknown Animals, Hill and Wang, 1958
• Reinhold Messner, My Quest for the Yeti: Confronting the Himalayas' Deepest Mystery, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000, ISBN 0-312-20394-2
• Gardner Soule, Trail of the Abominable Snowman, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1966, ISBN 0-399-6064

See also

• Bigfoot
• Blue Bear
• Expedition Everest
• Yeren
• Yowie
• Lake Worth monster
• The Lourdes effect

External links

• Yeh-teh "that thing out there"
• Yeti: Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas
• Swedish Yeti Association (This site is in Swedish)
• Yeti, The Abominable Snowman - from Occultopedia
• A theory of Yeti (This site is in French)
• The Cryptid Zoo: Yetis
• Migo