Yeti
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- For other uses, see Yeti (disambiguation).
The yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman and as a result has been over dramatized as a large primate-like creature supposedly living in the Himalayas. The Western name is derived from the Tibetan yeh-teh (transliterated: gYa' dred), "little man-like animal"; it is a false cognate with Old English geottan (or yettin in Modern English), an antiquated word for an orc or troll (see also jotun).
Most mainstream scientists and experts consider current evidence of the yeti's existence to be weak and better explained as hoax, legend, or misidentification of known species. Nevertheless, certain physical evidence, such as tracks and nests, have suggested to some that yeti is an unknown primate, a remnant hominid, or a type of bear, and the yeti remains one of the most famous creatures of cryptozoology.
The term yeti is often used to describe a number of very different reported creatures:
- A large ape-like biped (that some suggest could be Gigantopithecus blacki)
- Human-sized bipedal apes (the Alma and the Chinese wildman)
- Dwarf-like creatures (such as the Orang Pendek).
The yeti is sometimes referred to as the "Abominable Snowman". This name was popularized by the press after Henry Newman, a reporter, related a mistranslation of a Tibetan name Metoh-Kangmi for the yeti, "Kangmi" meaning "Man of the Snow" and Metoh meaning "dirty", or "filthy". Migoi or Mi-go (pronounced Mey-Goo) is another name for such a creature, other names are Mirka, Kang Admi, and eventually Meh-Teh which is the true name given to the snowman by the Sherpas. Other animals known to Tibetans which could have been construed as the yeti are the Chu-Teh, a monkey-like animal and the Dzu-Teh which is the Himalayan Red Bear.
The term is also often used to refer to reported ape-like creatures that fit any of these descriptions: for example, the fear liath may be referred to as the "Scottish yeti".
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History
Reports prior to 20th century
For hundreds of years, natives in the Himalayas have been telling stories about a humanoid monster that wanders around the mountain range. However, occasional reports of an ape-like creature in the Himalayas only began filtering to the west in the 1800s, mainly by British explorers [1].
In 1832, Journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal published the account of B. H. Hodgson, who wrote that while trekking in northern Nepal, his native guides spotted a tall, bipedal creature covered with long dark hair, then fled in fear. Hodgson did not see the creature, but concluded it was an orangutan.
Perhaps the first formal record of reported yeti footprints was in 1889's Among the Himalayas, by L.A. Wadell. Waddell reports his native guides described the large apelike creature that left the prints; he concluded the prints were a bear's. Waddel heard stories of bipedal, apelike creatures, but wrote that of the many witnesses he questioned, none "could ever give me an authentic case. On the most superficial investigation it always resolved into something that somebody had heard of." [2]
Early 20th century
The frequency of reports increased in the early 20th century, when Westerners began making determined attempts to climb the many mountains in the area and sometimes reported seeing odd creatures or strange tracks [3].
Also notable was Lieutenant Colonel C.K. Howard-Bury, inadvertently responsible for coining the term "Abominable Snowman." While leading "The Everest Reconnaisance" group on the Lhakpa La in the Everest region in 1921, Howard-Bury's expedition discovered many footprints at about 20,000 feet in altitude. Howard-Bury related his account to a reporter, Mr Henry Newman, for the Calcutta Statesman, however, the reporter made an error: the sherpas had said "meh-teh" (roughly, "manlike thing that is not a man"), but the reporter wrote "metoh-kagmi", which translates, roughly, to "abominable snowman".
In 1925, N.A. Tombazi, a photographer (and, incidentally, a member of the Royal Geographical Society) saw a creature at about 15,000 feet in altitude, near Zemu Glacier. Tombazi later wrote that he observed the creature from about 200 or 300 yards' distance, for about one 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 took to be the creature's prints, described as "similar in shape to those of a man, but only six to seven inches long by four inches wide.... The prints were undoubtedly those of a biped."
In 1942, after escaping from a Siberian prison, Sławomir Rawicz and his companions reported seeing two large, apelike creatures while crossing the Himalayas. They claim to have observed the creatures for several hours from a distance of about 100 m (300 feet). However, critics have questioned the accuracy (and even the reality) of Rawicz's escape narrative.
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 meters (20,000 feet) above sea level. These photos have been subject to intense study and debate: Some argue they are the best evidence of Yeti's reality; others disagree, and think the prints are a mundane creature's, distorted and enlarged by the melting snow.
In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reported seeing large footprints while scaling Mount Everest. Hillary would later discount yeti reports as unreliable.
During the Daily Mail Abominable Snowman Expedition of 1954, the largest search of its kind, the mountaineering leader John Angelo Jackson, made the first trek from Everest to Kangchenjunga and in the process photographed symbolic paintings of the yeti at Thyangboche Gompa (see References section). Jackson tracked and also photographed many footprints in the snow, many 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 particle action.
Beginning in 1957, Tom Slick, an American who had made a fortune in oil, funded a few missions to investigate yeti reports. In 1959, feces reportedly from a yeti were collected by Slick's expedition. Analysis found a parasite but could not classify it. Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that "Since each animal has its own parasites, this indicated that the host animal is equally an unknown animal."
In 1959, actor Jimmy Stewart, while visiting India, reportedly smuggled the remains of a supposed yeti, the so-called Pangboche Hand, by hiding them in his luggage when he flew from India to London. [4]
In 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary mounted an expedition to collect and evaluate evidence for the Yeti and sent a Yeti scalp from the Khumjung monastery to the West for testing. The results indicated that the scalp had been manufactured from the skin of the serow, a goat-like Himalayan antelope. But some disagreed with this analysis. Shackley said they "pointed out that hairs from the scalp look distinctly monkey-like, and that it contains parasitic mites of a species different from that recovered from the serow."
In 1970, British mountaineer Don Whillans says he saw a creature while scaling Annapurna. While scouting for a campsite, Whillans heard some odd cries. His sherpa guide told him the sound was a yeti's call. That night, reported Whillans, he saw a dark shape moving near his camp. The next day, Whillans observed a few human like footprints in the snow, and that evening, he asserted that with binoculars, he watched a bipedal, ape-like creature for about 20 minutes as it apparently searched for food not far from his camp.
Modern reports
Yeti accounts have perhaps received less attention in recent decades, but as recently as 1998, Craig Calonica reported seeing two apelike, bipedal creatures on Mount Everest.
Analyses
Many cryptozoologists, after careful examinations of eye-witness reports and statistical evidence, have concluded that yeti reports are misidentification of mundane creatures. Well-financed expeditions have failed to turn up any positive evidence of its existence, although a sample of hair retrieved from one expedition was reportedly confirmed as belonging to an unknown ape.
Enthusiasts speculate that these reported creatures could be present-day specimens of the extinct giant ape Gigantopithecus, as the only evidence (other than teeth) recovered from Gigantopithecus (its jawbone) indicates a skull rested upon a vertical spinal column (as in hominines and other bipedal apes such as Oreopithecus). However, while the yeti is usually described as a bipedal, most scientists feel that Gigantopithicus was probably quadrupedal, and so massive that unless it evolved specifically as a bipedal ape (like Oreopithecus and the hominids) upright walking would have been even more difficult for the now extinct primate than it is for its extant quadrupedal relative, the Orangutan. Without evidence to support it, this suggestion must be regarded as highly speculative.
Although there is no firm evidence to support yeti reports, some have noted the Himalayas are remote and sparsely populated, and that there is perhaps more room for the yeti's actuality than with Bigfoot in North America.
In 1997, Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner claimed to have come face to face with a Yeti. He has since written a book, My Quest for the Yeti, and eventually killed one. According to him, the Yeti is actually the endangered Himalayan Brown Bear, Ursus arctos, that can walk upright or on all fours.
In 2003, Japanese mountaineer, Makoto Nebuka, published the results of his 12-year linguistic study and postulated that the word "yeti" is actually a regional dialect term for "bear". The ethnic Tibetans fear and worship the bear (as do many primitive peoples) as a supernatural being.
Recently, Henry Gee, editor of the journal Nature, wrote that "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" [5].
Reference Material
- John A. Jackson, "More than Mountains", Chapter 10 & 11, "Prelude to the Snowman Expedition & The Snowman Expedition", George Harrap & Co, 1954
- John A. Jackson, *Adventure Travels in the Himalaya Chapter 17, "Everest and the Elusive Snowman", 1954 updated material, Indus Publishing Company, 2005.
- 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 0312203942
- Gardner Soule, "Trail of the Abominable Snowman", New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1966
The yeti in popular culture
With the many yeti reports in the 1950s, the creature crossed over into popular culture.
Movies and television
Wampas in the movie series Star Wars resemble yetis.
Mel Blanc lent his talent to voicing a bumbling, lovelorn Abominable Snowman on a few Warner Bros. cartoons from the era.
Two early films include The Snow Creature (1954) [6] and Jû jin yuki otoko / Beast Man Snow Man (1955) [7].
In the fifth series of the Goon Show, episode 24 was entitled Yehti. It was first broadcast by the BBC on 8th March 1955, and the plot is woven around the quest for a yeti on the Yorkshire Moors which is hampered by the supposed ability of a yeti to "take possession of your mind" which leads to some bizarre twists in the story.[8]
The British film The Abominable Snowman appeared in 1957, starring Forrest Tucker and Peter Cushing; Fred Johnson played the yeti.
The long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who featured a robotic Yeti in the serials The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear and its 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors.
An abominable snowman called Bumbles was the villain in the perennial 1964 Rankin-Bass Christmas television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He became friendly over the course of the story.
A recurring character on the Donkey Kong Country cartoon was a white gorilla called Eddie the Mean Old Yeti.
The 2001 Disney/Pixar film Monsters, Inc. featured an abominable snowman voiced by John Ratzenberger.
The 2001 movie Monkeybone had a yeti that worked at the Morpheum Theatre in Downtown.
The Backyardigans have an episode about the Yeti in which Pablo the penguin sings "The Yeti Stomp".
The 2005 remake of King Kong contains a reference to the yeti, where Lumpy the Cook mistakes one of Kong's footprints for that of the Abominable Snowman.
Literature
In 1960, the Tintin comic book Tintin in Tibet was published, featuring a story about a yeti. This has been claimed to be the author Herge's own favorite in the series.
Philip Kerr's adventure novel Esau (1996) tells of an expedition which encounters yeti in the Himalayas.
Author R.L. Stine created a book for his Goosebumps series titled "The Abominable Snowman Of Pasadena."
Games
The role-playing game Final Fantasy VI contains an unlockable character named Umaro who is based on the yeti.
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game E.V.O.: Search for Eden, released in 1992 in Japan by Enix, features two yetis as bosses in the fourth stage.
Wizet's online game MapleStory also has several versions of "Yeti" monsters.
The Nintendo DS game, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow has the yeti as one of three cryptozoology based monsters. It bears more resembelence to Bigfoot, however.
The computer game SkiFree has Abominable Snow Monsters that chase the player when they reach certain boundraries in the game world. If they catch up the player is eaten.
In 2002, the Game Boy Advance game "Urban Yeti" was made. This game was used for many jokes and puns within the now defunct video game magazine "GameNOW" . (Jokes mainly revolving around the term "Ready to YETI!!!" )
In the Capcom game, DarkStalkers, there is a playable character named Sasquatch who looks much like the Yeti.
There is a Yeti named Bentley featured in several of the Spyro games and is playable in Spyro: Year of the Dragon. There are other yetis seen in the Spyro games, including Bentley's younger brother, as well as others that are portrayed as both friendly beings (Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly) and enemies (Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, Spyro: Year of the Dragon and Spyro: A Hero's Tail).
In the 2001 video game NBA Street there is a Yeti as an unlockable character.
The PS2 game Drakan: The Ancient Gates features yetis as enemy characters, including the boss-character, Daemog. The yetis in this game resemble recolored versions of the giants in the Drakan games.
In the Playstation game Tomb Raider 2: The Dagger Of Xian, Yetis are featured as enemy characters.
The AD&D CRPG Icewind Dale features numerous yetis.
Chris Hilgert and the team of yetisports.org have created a series of popular computer, cell phone, and web games featuring a yeti as the main character, along with a cast of other animal friends, chiefly penguins.
In the Disney video game Atlantis for Playstation, one of many enemies found in the game are snow ball throwing yetis.
One of the Vacation Mascots for The Sims: Vacation expansion packs is a yeti, and can interact with child Sims.
In the game Gladius, one of the arenas have yetis in it and it is possible to enroll them in your school.
In Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, a yeti is one of the bosses. This yeti is different then the steryotype, because it can breathe ice and turns to ice in its death animation. It also seems fairly inteligent because it is wearing clothes.
In the online game Silkroad, yetis are high-level monsters found on the western-half of China.
Miscellaneous
In 1978, Disneyland added Audio-Animatronic yetis to its Matterhorn Bobsleds attraction during an extensive refurbishment of the 1959 roller coaster.
Polish artist Stanisław Szukalski's belief system, called Zermatism, that many people are actually subhuman descendents of yetis ("Yetinsyny") was adopted by the Church of the SubGenius, with the twist that SubGenii are supposed to be superior mutants descended from godlike Yetinsyn ancestors.
In April 2006, Walt Disney World Resort opened Expedition Everest in its Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, a roller coaster featuring an animatronic yeti; Disney will promote the attraction in February 2006 with a publicity stunt set to feature an enormous yeti image decorating a Times Square skyscraper
Gregg Yeti (of The Flashing Astonishers) is a modern indie rock musician who took on the abominable one for a last name.
The Yeti Band (not to be confused with the British group, Yeti), an avant-garde rock/jazz group called played in and around New York City from 1977 to around 1990. The band had a rotating membership, but was created by and always featured guitarist/leader Steven Bosky. The band was named after Bosky's rock opera, "The Yeti", about a hunt for the legendary abominable snowman. The band's members included (at various times) Doug Walker (synth), Cary Steiner (trumpet and vocals), Alan Baratz (drums), Elliot Harris (congas), Craig Birney (bass). Several underground tapes exist.
See also
External links
- Religious site that claims that belief in Yeti springs from the theory of evolution and the media
- Yeh-teh "that thing out there"
- The Unmuseum's Yeti page
- Yeti, The Abominable Snowman - from Occultopedia
- A theory of Yeti (This site is in French)
- The Cryptid Zoo: Yetistr:Yeti
bg:Йети de:Yeti eo:Restaĵa homeculo es:Yeti fi:Lumimies fr:Yéti hr:Jeti hu:Jeti it:Yeti ja:イエティ ko:예티 nl:Yeti pl:Yeti pt:Yeti ru:Снежный человек