Yeti

What it is

The Yeti is a large, hairy, two-legged being in Himalayan story. It is said to live in the mountains of Asia, and people describe it as human-like or ape-like, with hair that may be brown, grey or white and sometimes with large sharp teeth. Reports have presented sightings, video, photographs and casts of big footprints as evidence, but many of these are disputed and some are hoaxes. The creature is the subject of Sherpa and other Himalayan tales, and it was taken into Tibetan Buddhism as a kind of nonhuman animal. A sighting is often treated as an ill omen.

Where it comes from

Folklorists link the Yeti to Sherpa storytelling and to animals that were seen but wrongly identified, such as bears and yaks. The Tibetan name g.ya' dred joins words for a rocky place and a bear, though the name's history is not simple. In the early 1920s a British Everest party heard Sherpa guides call tracks the work of a wild man of the snows, metoh-kangmi. Henry Newman, a Calcutta journalist, later rendered the first part as 'filthy' and used 'abominable' instead, giving the West the name Abominable Snowman.

How it is done

Reports describe chance encounters rather than a rite: a figure seen at a distance, tracks in snow or mud, and hair said to come from a scalp. Investigators have photographed prints and compared such hair with samples from known animals. In Tibetan settings, images of Yetis are carried in procession and sometimes honoured as guards against harmful spirits. The being is also named in stories as a helper or disciple of religious figures.

Tools and materials

The evidence around the Yeti is mostly physical: casts of footprints, photographs, video, and hair said to be from a scalp. Researchers have bleached and sectioned such hair and compared it under a microscope with bear and orangutan hair. In one old description the wild-man being carries a big stone as a weapon. In Tibetan settings images of Yetis are carried in procession.

What it is for

The Yeti works in story as a boundary being: a creature of high snow and forest that people fear, discuss and sometimes honour. In Tibetan Buddhism it is understood as an animal that may follow the Dharma, and its image can serve as a guardian against evil spirits. Because it can also act for the Dharma, an encounter is often read as a warning, and the witness is told to build merit. Elsewhere the name is used for a mystery animal that expeditions hope to prove.

Who does it

No single specialist owns the Yeti. The stories belong to Sherpa guides and other Himalayan communities, and to Lepcha tradition, where a Glacier Being was worshipped as a god of the hunt. Bön followers once held that the blood of a wild man had a use in spiritual ceremonies. Tibetan Buddhists include the being in a wider world of nonhuman animals and parade its image. Outside the region, mountaineers, photographers and researchers have collected reports and physical traces, often with sceptical colleagues checking the results.

Peoples and places

The Yeti is placed in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, India and Siberia in different accounts. Sherpa communities use the name yeti, while Nepali speakers outside those communities may say Bun Manchi, jungle man. Tibetan lore names three types: Nyalmo, Chuti and Rang Shim Bombo, differing in size and coat. Related names include Michê, man-bear, Migoi, wild man, and Xueren in Chinese, snow man. In Siberia, Yakut and Tungus accounts describe the Chuchuna, a separate hairy being. A Western name, Abominable Snowman, is applied to the same figure.

What people believe

In the older Himalayan picture, the Yeti is one of several strange beings in high country. Some Lepcha tradition gave a Glacier Being a place as god of the hunt, and Bön lore held that the wild man's blood had ceremonial use. Tibetan Buddhism recast the Yeti as a nonhuman animal, tiragyoni, that can sometimes understand and follow Dharma. Stories tell of Yetis becoming helpers or disciples of religious figures. Because they may enforce Dharma, meeting one is often a bad sign, and merit is accumulated in response. Images of Yetis can also guard a place from evil spirits.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Folklorists explain the Yeti as a mix of Sherpa tales and misread animals, especially bears and yaks. Laurence Waddell thought footprint stories came from bears and noted that witnesses usually repeated what someone else had heard. The linguist David Snellgrove rejected the form 'metch' as impossible in Tibetan. Jeffrey Meldrum studied a rebuilt print in 2008 and found ape-like toe alignment, but said two photographs of one track could not settle the case. Tenzing Norgay moved from belief in a large ape to scepticism. Some footprint shapes are attributed to melting and wind widening marks in snow.

Compare and confuse

The Yeti is often set beside Bigfoot in North America because both are described as large, hairy, two-legged beings. Similar beings named alongside it include Almas, Barmanou, Basajaun, Hibagon, Mande Barung, Orang Pendek, Skunk ape, Yeren and Yowie. Within the Himalayas, names such as Michê, Migoi, Dzu-teh and Bun Manchi do not all mean the same thing: some point to a bear, some to a wild man, some to a jungle being. The Western label Abominable Snowman gathers them under one image.

Questions people ask about Yeti

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• Siberia home to yeti, bigfoot enthusiasts insistThe Guardian, Article
• British scientist 'solves' mystery of Himalayan yetisBBC, Article
• Visit Nepal's yeti: How mythical creature divided Himalayan nationBBC, Article

• Yeti on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data