The Bhutanese Leading the way.
In what could reignite Bhutan’s long held fascination for the Yeti or ‘Migoi’ an official report filed by a Ranger of the Thrumshingla National Park on 3rd September, 2012 claims the discovery of ‘Yeti droppings’.
Thrumshingla Park Ranger Pema who had gone to Tang, Bumthang to file a report of cattle killed by a Tiger collected the Yeti droppings from a Mr. Dorji Wangdi a resident of Benjibi village in Bumthang.
The report says that Dorji Wangdi in turn collected the ‘Yeti droppings’ on 14 August 2011 at around 9 am from the Kumurting blue pine forest.
Mr. Dorji Wangdi apparently enjoys some credibility among Yeti watchers as the report mentions that sometime in the 1980s the same farmer sighted the foot print of a Yeti, collected the scat (droppings) and hand it over to His Majesty the Fourth King.
The park officials have collected the dropping and brought to the office for DNA analysis to confirm the ‘species’.
Internationally the scientific community generally regards the yeti as a legend, given the lack of conclusive evidence but there are those who also believe in its probable existence due to the partial evidences made available so far.
One of the most significant evidences was discovered in 2001 in Bhutan when British scientists came across a strand of hair deep in a forest which on DNA analysis did not match any known animal like bear, ape etc.
The hair was found on the inside of the hollow of a cedar tree. The team found foot prints near the tree and scratches inside the hollow.
Some of the hair was taken back to the UK for DNA testing. Bryan Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics at the Oxford Institute of Molecular Medicine and one of the world’s leading experts on DNA analysis examined the hair. He had then said in an interview, “We found some DNA in it, but we don’t know what it is. It’s not a human, not a bear not anything else we have so far been able to identify. It’s a mystery and I never thought this would end in a mystery. We have never encountered DNA that we couldn’t recognize before”.
“The story of a Migoi was told to me but I haven’t really encountered a Migoi yet and my belief is we could have it according to the true stories which were passed down the generations,” said Dr. Sonam Wangyel Wang formerly of the forest department and now with the Royal Education Council.
He also said that a team was sent to various suspected places in the country in a hunt of yeti after people believed its existence but could not encounter with it. He added that scientifically he believes that the Apes and Bigfoot once existed but due to the climate change it might have disappeared.
When asked about the recent sight of yeti scat in TNP Dr. Sonam Wangyel Wang said that the scat should be first analyzed and matched with the depiction about the yeti (recorded scientifically).
The Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, a large national park, was created in part as a place to protect it. Once Bhutan bothered to set up a postal system, in the early 1960s, Bhutan issued stamps honoring the Migoi.
Bhutan’s Nature Conservation Department has around half a dozen framed plaster casts mounted on the wall. The frames show the outline of irregular grayish footprints around 12 inches long. All, according to small signs, come from yetis.
Many traditional beliefs remain deeply ingrained in Bhutan that the yeti exists while among the modern and educated community the Yeti is more myth then real.
In thrimshingla area, yeti is called grethpo….eastern and central bhutanese call them so..
My father had told me that his friend’s uncle’s grandmother’s aunt’s great great grandfather’s brother’s grandson had spotted Yeti in Tashi La region under Wangdue Phodrang Dzongkhag. So, this must be true.
As per some narations that I have heard about, Drethpoho used to be spotted in Aja area in Mongar and Tshajgu area in Drametse. People had encountered them and they make noices similar to human. They are told to be aggressive and could be driven out only by burning aconite (Tsendug) as it is allergic to them.
I want one….:)
I appreciate TheBhutanese has given the right title but people reporting and interpreting were quite interesting. The forest personnel should have declared with any one that he had got a very unique scats instead of concluding it is a Yeti scat. How i can anyone confirm it is of Yeti when a single person have not seen a shadow of it. It could have imprinted by any thing including from human to wild animals. After all it was a foot print which itself is a duplicate copy of imprint. Very good thing about it is there was not information saying it corresponds to Yeti footprint. Do any international body have information about it. I would say you are too early bird to say you are early bird catcher.
This is a bullshit
We Bhutanese will believe anything. And some of our story-tellers in the village can exaggerate like any teller of tall tales. For one the shrill cry of the “Drethpo” ringing in the cold mountain air alarming herdsmen and travelers at night have been reported (by Lonely Planet) to be that of snow leopards.
I too heard alot about these yetis..it can be true coz there are many stories told by men
Yetis are not a myth. But a reality. The westernized and the modernized world didn’t saw it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. In many of the biographies of spiritual practitioners staying in high secluded mountain of Tibet, it mentions lots about yeti, and their encounter. There are yeti skulls and palms to be seen in old monasteries in Tibet and Khumbu in Nepal. There are 21st century people (the shepherds) who have seen death body of yeti in high mountains in eastern Tibet. But since Tibetans also believe that the local spirits comes in the disguise of Yetis, they were afraid to touch the death bodies.. This is a real life account. Believe it or not!