YETI

The Yeti or Abominable Snowman is an apelike 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."

Most mainstream scientists,
explorers and writers consider current evidence of the Yeti's existence to be
weak and better explained as hoax, legend or misidentification of known
species.^[2] Even today, the Yeti remains one of the most
famous creatures of cryptozoology. As such, the Yeti can be
considered a Himalayan version of the Sasquatch.

Purported Yeti scalp at Khumjung monastery
Creature
Name:	Yeti
AKA:	Abominable Snowman Migoi, Meh-teh et al.
Classification
Grouping:	Cryptid
Sub grouping:	Hominid
Data
Country:	Nepal, Tibet
Region:	Himalayas
Habitat:	Mountains

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."

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, allegedly saw a creature at about 15,000 ft
(4572 meter) near Zemu
Glacier.
Tombazi later wrote that he observed the creature from about 200 or 300
yards, 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 long by
four inches wide... The prints were undoubtedly those of a biped."

The Pangboche Scalp

The

Pangboche Hand and Yeti "Scalp",
1954

Dr. Biswamoy Biswas examining the Pangboche Yeti scalp during the
Daily
Mail Snowman Expedition of
1954

The
Daily Mail "Snowman 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 and were probably exceedingly old.
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.

[edit]
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.^[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."

In 1959, actor

Jimmy 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

In 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary mounted an expedition to collect and analyse
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]}

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.