Yeti: The Mythical Creature

Legends have depicted a “beast in the glaciers” that resembles a huge ape and was worshipped by the natives, living in the mountainous regions.

Pages and pages have been written on the mysteries that exist in the mountains- from the ghosts who watch over hills to the odd customs that you can encounter in the mountains. But, the Yeti is undoubtedly the subject of the biggest Himalayan myth. Bigfoot or Sasquatch is a monster from the North American legends. The Jungle Man is a beast from Russian folklore. In the meantime, on the tall mountains on our side of the Himalayas, natives and foreigners alike have been spreading unfounded rumours about the Yeti, also called the Abominable Snowman by westerners.

A strong bipedal species, that is, one that moves on two legs, is around 6 feet tall with reddish-brown or grey hair. Tibetans refer to the Yeti as a man-bear. People in western Nepal reported seeing a long-eared creature, they called, Lamkarna. Mountaineers made claims to reporters that they had seen the Yeti during expeditions. However, other than footprints, no one has captured anything in close proximity to a photograph. 

Yoshiteru Takahashi claimed to have discovered the cave, where the Yeti lived, in 2003 while climbing up the Dhaulagiri. He said that just before taking the picture, his camera got frozen. In 1960, Edmund Hillary set out to find the Yeti in the Rolwaling valley trails but couldn’t find anything. Even Alexander the Great insisted on seeing a Yeti when he conquered the Indus Valley in 326 BC. 

Although there are ample conjectures about its existence, there is hardly any conclusive proof. There isn’t any concrete evidence in front of us that the Yeti is a living, breathing creature and not merely the stuff of folklore. Another unsettling aspect is that several parts of the world have their own interpretations of this monster, which is a mammoth sized hybrid of a human and an animal, that engages in horrible behaviour.

Whether they are genuine or not, these animals will probably always exist; if not physically, then at least in folklore. 

Compiled By: Rebika Bishokarma

Photos By: imnepal, exploreresweb

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