The Yeti is not Abonimable

Those who travel in the Himalaya often wonder about the Yeti - a Bigfoot type creature said to live in the higher reaches of those mountains. The Sherpas and other people who live in the region have no doubt that the Yeti exists, but often prefer not to talk about it with outsiders.

The story of the Yeti hit popular culture in 1951, long before the public was aware of Sasquatch (Bigfoot) or other man-like creatures living in the wildest areas of the planet. An expedition to the Mount Everest region (which included Edmund Hillary who would be the first to climb to the top of Mt. Everest two years later) returned with a photograph of a large, four toed footprint in the snow:




This photo, taken by Eric Shipton, caused the public imagination to whirl with images of an "Abonimable Snowman" lurking in the mountains, undoubtedly a fierce and dangerous monster. A famous original "Twilight Zone" episode starring young William Shatner featured the monster hitching a ride on an airplane's wing, no doubt intending to terrorize the world.

Fortunately the real story is less scary. Shipton, in his book "The Six Mountains" said that Sen Tenzing, a Sherpa member of the expedition, had seen a Yeti at Thangboche, a village south of the Everest area. Tenzing "described it as half man and half beast, standing about five feet six inches, with a tall pointed head, its body covered with reddish brown hair, but with a hairless face."

Except for the height, this is very similar to descriptions of Sasquatch, although the Yeti footprint above appears to have 4 toes instead of five.


Is a forgotten branch of the human species living, almost unnoticed, deep in the most inaccessible areas of the Earth? If we imagine these beings have a strong aversion to contact with humans (understandable) and greatly heightened senses (and telepathy, if we want to accept that), there still remain enough gaps in our knowledge of the Earth to allow them space to exist.

I hope they do, and that someday we will make contact with them.....
And that they will share their wisdom with us.


Tibet is a most dramatic place to travel. TravelinTibet is a thoughtful tale of my own journey there. A bonus is that I have included many stunning black and white photographs from the American expedition in Tibet in 1942-3.
Click here to go to TravelinTibet.com

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Beautiful handcrafted jewelry of Nepal and Tibet is available for sale:

Click here to go to AccentNepal.com - which is an Ebay hosted store, and also:
Click here to go to JewelryTibet.com- an independent wholesale site which is open to the public.

Whycat.com explores many of the unexplained features of our world with curiosity and intelligence. Cryptozoology, the study of creatures beyond those accepted by science, is one of many topics explored:
Click here to go to WhyCat.com

Tibetanjewelry.net is a brief look at some of the more common Tibetan symbols, with pictures and descriptions.
Click here to go to TibetanJewelry.net