21 Migoi Legend in <strong>Bhutan</strong> He remembers the darkness of the pine forest, and the footprints, and his terror when the creature began to howl. He remembers the stories of his childhood, of a beast that stalked the upper reaches of the mountains, and how fear spread through the v<strong>illage</strong> every time it was spotted. In a remote Himalayan kingdom that held out against the modern world for as long as it could, the old man remembers a time when the yeti was a normal part of life. “The creature has always been out there, and it’s out there still,” says Sonam Dorji, 77, sitting on the pockmarked wooden floor of his small farmhouse. It’s a cold Himalayan morning, and he warms himself beside a wood stove. The smell of burning pine fills the room. “If you travel the ancient trails, even today, there’s a good chance you’ll meet him.” In the West, yeti-like creatures long ago were reduced to myth. But across the Himalayas the beast was seen as real, known for generations in a half-dozen countries from Tibet to Pakistan. It was a region flush with wildlife, where tigers, bears and wild dogs roamed thick mountain forests and remote river valleys. Here, if nowhere else, the yeti was simply one more creature. For <strong>Bhutan</strong>, a country barely noticed by much of the world, it became something even more. In a nation stumbling nervously into modernity, the hulking mountain beast was publicly celebrated, becoming a 20th-century talisman against unbridled change and a link to ancient traditions. Stories of its travels were told by the king and top government officials. The Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, a large national park on the Eastern edge of <strong>Bhutan</strong>, was created in part as a place to protect it. Once <strong>Bhutan</strong> set up a postal system in the early 1960s, it issued stamps honoring an animal that science insists does not exist. “Everyone knew it was there,” Sonam says. “It was like the bears or the leopards. Why would we question it?” No one is sure how far back the stories go. The tales change from region to region across Asia — yetis were maneaters in some places, grass-eaters in others. In many places, the beast was seen as a harbinger of death, a combination of man, animal and demon. Some things, though, were certain. It was tall, hairy and very strong. It lived mostly in the high mountains and avoided people. Only a handful of yak herders might report sightings with any regularity, but everyone knew it was out there, and feared it. In <strong>Bhutan</strong>, most people call it the “migoi” — strong man — but it goes by any number of names across the Himalayas: glacier man, snow goblin, wild man. Mountaineers brought back many of the stories, telling of strange footprints in the snow, of mysterious animals spotted walking on two legs, of tales their porters told around campfires. Just maybe, some thought, there could be truth in those tales. The high Himalayas are among the most isolated, forbidding parts of the world. Couldn’t something — perhaps a species of gorilla, or even a form of proto-human — have hidden for centuries amid the crags? Ask politely, and Sangay Wangchuck will take you into a meeting room at the headquarters of <strong>Bhutan</strong>’s conservation department and show you 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. The yeti stories run deep here, and denial means more than casting off an old belief. “My parents, my v<strong>illage</strong>, they still believe,” says Wangchuck, a genial, erudite man clearly pained by the twin pulls of science and his heritage. So he speaks slowly when he talks about the yeti, words stumbling out in sentence fragments as he tries to straddle the line between the empirical and the emotional. “As a biological entity, it’s very difficult” to believe, says Wangchuck, looking down at his desk, covered with piles of papers. But does it exist? “It’s very difficult to say no.” Just a decade or so ago, the yeti helped explain the often intimidating natural world nearly everyone lived in — the nighttime shadows, the terrifying noises on lonely forest paths, the strange footprints. Like the tigers that roamed these forests a century ago, the yeti is probably gone. “My parents used to talk about it, about meeting the huge man in the forest,” he says. Then he walks away, following a dirt path toward a wooden house where electric lights now chase away the night and whatever might be hiding in its darkness. So watch carefully on your trek. Maybe you’ll get a glimpse of this mythical beast.
Treks Long or short, custom or planned, easy or strenuous, we have a trek for you! From 3 to 24 days we have a great variety of treks that cover terrain all over the country. Enjoy great food, amazing guides, spectacular views and the pleasure of exploring hidden gems that can only be reached on foot. Treks include waterproof tents, 3 meals daily, sleeping pads, pillows, filtered water, pony porters and washing water each morning and evening. 22
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