Book Review (Spotlight Weekly)

On Yeti

An American scholar writes on the myth about the Yeti

By KESHAB POUDEL

Nepal has a long history of listening to the mysterious tales of Yeti. Some have claimed that they have discovered the footprint of the Snowman while others have described the possible picture of the mysterious creature in the Himalayas. Whether there is any evidence or not, a large number of Nepalese people believe that there is such a mysterious creature existing in the Himalayas.

Although it seems that there is a myth attached with the snowman, for others it is a reality of their life. In a society, which believes in fatalism, such kinds of belief in mysterious animal are understandable. Whether one likes it or not, people at large still hold the view that there is snowman wandering in the Himalayas.

Many scholars, anthropologists and geologists have written about the beautiful and giant snowman. Nepal’s first jet aircraft –which was letter sold – was also named Yeti. From airplane to travel agency and hotels to restaurants, Yeti has become a brand name in Nepal. Nobody has any record of having seen the Yeti, none have come forward with concrete and irrefutable proof about its existence.

In the last five-decade and so, many researches have conducted studies to identify the traces of Yeti but no one has found any clue regarding it. Artists have drawn the picture of Yeti and its footprint as a part of imagination.

In an effort to analyze myth and reality of Yeti, Larry G. Peters, an American psychologist and a well-known author of the Himalayan region, has come out with his own description. Many writers and scholars have different version on the snowman Yeti but only a few of them have tried to study all different aspects of Himalayas relating to Yeti.

The American scholar, who has written a number of books on Himalayas – has analyzed social and cultural aspects of the region before drawing any conclusion on the physical existence of Yeti. Although every myth has relations with socio-cultural values of a particular area, one cannot deny the fact that Yeti is also relevant to the people living in the Himalayas. The Buddhist population who live in Himalaya region practiced the Tibetan type of Buddhism, which believes in miracles and spirit. They regard the Himalayas as a heaven and god.

The book takes a fresh look at the Yeti, the elusive snowman of the Himalayas. Dr. Peters here aspires to establish the Yeti as the spirit of the Himalayan Forest Shamans. In his view, evolution-minded researchers’ hunt for missing link led to a scientific dead-end and the yeti who became associated with research fell into disrepute as a superstitious fallacy of the Himalayan natives.