Everyone has heard about Bigfoot, but no one can reliably say that he exists. Or maybe someone just benefits from supporting this legend? Let's figure it out.
HOW HIMALAYAN BEAR GOT YETI
The term "Yeti", which is most often called Bigfoot, originated in Tibet. In the language of the Sherpa aborigines, this word means "a man climbing stones."
The first "official" report of the Yeti came in 1889 when a British army officer noticed giant foot prints in the snow in the Himalayas. In 1925, the Greek photographer Tomba-tsi met a strange hairy creature in those parts. However, he did not have time to shoot Bigfoot on film, as he quickly disappeared from view.
In Nepal, the yeti is considered a sacred animal. Buddhist monks feed the snowmen, leaving food where they come to drink, and if they manage to get the remains of the yeti, they are kept in monasteries as a relic. For example, in two temples on the border with Sikkim (Indian state), two skulls are kept, which supposedly serve as protection from evil spirits.
Bones or scraps of skins of mysterious animals are sold at every corner. Of course, the merchants swear that "souvenirs" are the most real. However, according to knowledgeable people, this is a fake. But tourists do not care - they willingly buy up goods.
But many inhabitants of the Himalayas believe that the Bigfoot is none other than the brown Himalayan bear. According to the Japanese climber Makoto Nebuki, the word "yeti" is a distorted "mechi", "bear". And the Himalayan bears have long been credited with supernatural abilities …
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THE MYSTERY OF THE VALLEY BLUFF CREEK
It is believed that Bigfoot was first shot on film on October 20, 1967. On that day, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin of Yakima, Washington went on a horseback ride in the Northern California National Wildlife Refuge in Bluff Creek Valley. I must say that they knew very well that the sasquatch was found in these parts (as the Indian lumberjacks called the Bigfoot, whose tracks were sometimes found in this area).
Suddenly, a few meters away from them, they noticed an unknown hairy creature of large stature, it seems, of a female sex (this was evidenced by the developed mammary glands). Ono started to run, but Patterson managed to get a movie camera out of his bag and make a recording, while Gimlin kept the Yeti at gunpoint just in case. Having reached a steep slope, he turned to the right, moved along a clearing that stretched along the stream, and finally disappeared from sight. According to Roger and Bob, before disappearing, the creature turned around and looked at the young people - as it seemed to them, there was contempt in his gaze …
The filmed episode is about two minutes long, and the creature itself, which is believed to be Bigfoot, or the so-called relict hominoid, is visible on film for only 53 seconds. However, it is by far the most successful recording made by yeti hunters to date.
However, is it really Bigfoot on the film? It shows how a hairy man is walking along the mountainside on two legs. But it can be an unknown animal, or a man in fur clothes …
THE RIGHTS OF THE BIGFOOTS ABORIGENES
Meanwhile, lately, alleged yeti have been active in all parts of the globe. So, in May last year, near Lake Jiaming in the vicinity of the city of Taitung (Taiwan), a humanoid creature about 8 feet tall (2.4 meters) was photographed, walking along the shore of the reservoir. The head of the creature resembled the head of a praying mantis, between the fingers - membranes … Members of the Taiwanese ufological association TUFOS recognized the photo as genuine.
Not so long ago, an American expert on the study of Bigfoot Mitch Veit and his wife discovered in the Tonto National Forest in the Mogollon Valley (Arizona) someone's den, hidden by grass and tree branches. Researchers believe that this is the lair of a Mogollon monster - this is the name of a humanoid creature with giant feet that lives in the local forests. For the first time they started talking about him at the beginning of the last century. However, the local Indians - the Apaches and the Navajo - had legends about a monster, which they called "the big hairy man" or "the old mountain man". According to eyewitnesses, its height is from two to three meters, the hairline of a forest dweller is brown or red. The creature emits a pungent musky odor.
Mitch Veith is convinced that the den belongs to a Mogollonian monster, since not far from it, a researcher found a giant footprint, as well as hair and excrement of a mysterious creature.
By the way, the American geneticist from Texas Melba Ketchum and her colleagues, after a five-year study of skin and hair samples, presumably belonging to a Bigfoot living in North America, believe that, judging by the composition of DNA, the ancestor of this creature was … a hybrid of a human woman and a male large primate unknown species. According to scientists, such a hybrid could have arisen from the crossing of two species about 15 thousand years ago.
Melba Ketchum believes that Bigfoot should be recognized as one of the indigenous peoples of America. “Genetically, Bigfoot is a human hybrid with a distinctly modern human maternal ancestor,” she says. "Government agencies at all levels must now recognize them as indigenous and thereby immediately protect them from those who see their physical and cultural differences as a" license "to hunt or even kill."
HOUSE FOR SNOW MAN
On the territory of Russia, rumors about the Yeti appear no less often than in the USA or other countries. For several years now they have been talking about Bigfoot, allegedly living in the wilds of the Kuzbass taiga, in Gornaya Shoria in the south of the Kemerovo Region, and periodically catching the eye of people.
The mysterious inhabitants of the taiga from a distance resemble brown bears, but they leave traces in the snow that look like human ones. According to the descriptions of local hunters who often come across them, the height of the creatures is 1.5-2 meters, their whole body is covered with reddish-black hair, and they climb trees well. Locals call them "dark people". " Most often they were observed in the Azasskaya cave area, 450 kilometers from Kemerovo.
After reports of encounters with unknown creatures began to appear more and more often, it was decided to equip a scientific expedition to the area. It included scientists-anthropologists from Kemerovo University. They suggested that we are talking about the so-called relict hominoids - representatives of the order of primates that have survived to this day.
At the end of last year, another expedition and an international scientific conference dedicated to the search for evidence of the existence of a relict hominoid in this region ended in the Kemerovo region.
“During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, the conference participants collected irrefutable evidence of Bigfoot's habitation in Gornaya Shoria: his tracks, a supposed rookery, various markers with the help of which the yeti mark the territory,” said representatives of the regional administration. “Summing up the results of the work, the researchers came to the conclusion that the artifacts found by 95% testify to the habitation of Bigfoot in the Kemerovo region.”
Snowmen hunters are striving to Gornaya Shoria and the Tashtagol region. This contributes to the development of local tourism: there are even souvenirs on sale with the image of a Bigfoot.
And recently it became known that in the Tashta-Golsky region, near the Sheregesh ski resort, it is planned to build a "Bigfoot residence". There will be an entire village with a Bigfoot hut, tourist houses, restaurants and a medical center, as well as a Yeti Park with a museum. The tourist zone is created on the initiative of the regional administration.
The conclusion is obvious: huge benefits can be derived from the myths about the Bigfoot, because tourists are greedy for sensations. But will real yeti want to live next to a large crowd of people? Most likely, they will try to hide as far as possible. However, Bigfoot has already been turned into a brand, and now it doesn't really matter if he really exists …
Ida SHAKHOVSKAYA
Secrets of the XX century № 8 (March 2013)