Is the snowman from Nepal "Yeti" actually a brown bear - "Mati" * A Japanese linguist and mountaineer claims that the legend of the mysterious snowman is the result of linguistic confusion
3.10.2003
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A public controversy recently erupted in Nepal following the announcement by a Japanese expert on the languages of the Himalayan region, according to which the rumors of the existence of "Yeti", the mysterious snowman from Nepal, are the result of a linguistic error.
The expert, Dr. Matako Nabuka, is a linguist and mountaineer who spent 12 years in Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, trying to crack the riddle of the mysterious snowman. Last month Nabuka announced at a press conference in Tokyo that "Yeti" is not an unknown species of monkey or a hairy human being that lives in the peaks of the Himalayas without anyone being able to see it. According to him, Yeti is actually a brown bear, which is common in Asia and Europe and is called "Meti" in the local Tibetan dialect.
"The Snowman" and a poster of one of the films that dealt with him (above) * Below right: a picture from a film shot in California in 1967
"The yeti legend has spread too far," Nabuka stated and emphasized that no one has yet presented solid proof of the existence of the mysterious creature, although many claim to have seen it. According to him, the tribes that live in the Himalayas worship the brown bear and believe that he is a god with supernatural powers. Nabuka presented at the press conference photographs of footprints of a brown bear and ritual objects associated with it.
Nabuka's statement caused a storm even before it hit the headlines in Nepal, and was followed by a flood of reactions. In a letter to the editor of the "Kathmandu Post" newspaper, entitled "The Yeti Case", Naboka demanded linguistic clarity. The letter's writer, Baha Dewa, argued that the Japanese explorer may have spent a little too much time in the wrong mountains, causing him to confuse the two words. According to Deva, the words "Yeti" and "Mati" refer to almost mythological animals.
Other opponents arose for Nabuka, including a zoology enthusiast who was a senior official in the government of Nepal, Tirtha Bahadur Pardhanga. According to him, it is still too early to "deny the existence of Yeti. The word "yeti", according to him, is "rock animal" in the Sherpa language (members of the Sherpa tribe are used as equipment carriers in Everest climbing expeditions).
Dr. Raj Kumar Pandey, who like Nabuka studies the languages of the Himalayas and the yeti riddle, declared that it is impossible to rule out the legends about the mysterious creature from the Himalayas just based on two words that rhyme with each other, but have completely different meanings.
"What about all the expeditions that saw 'Yeti'," said Dr. Pandey, mentioning the British Eric Shipton and the head of the British expedition to Everest in 1953, John Hunt, all mountain climbers who gained fame and worldwide publicity. "It will take us a long time and serious research in the field of languages and zoology, until we can believe statements like that of Nebuchadnezzar," he said.
The BBC checked the position of mountain climbers in the famous city of Rum Doodle Bar in Nepal, a site favored by many climbers. At least three said they saw Yeti with their own eyes. None of the three wanted to be identified by name, but all vehemently denied that the fact that they had seen Yeti was in any way related to the famous beer that is brewed on the peaks of the Himalayas.
It is possible that the controversy regarding Liti is actually related to the rivalry between Japanese mountaineers. Dr. Nabuka's press conference took place a few weeks after the most famous "hit hunter" of all, Yoshitro Takahashi, left Japan in a "last and final attempt", as he said, to photograph the animal. Takahashi claims that in 1994 he found a yeti cave on the slopes of the fifth highest mountain in the world, which is located in western Nepal.
Before he left Japan, Takahashi said his camera froze and became useless when he tried to photograph the cave. This year, he said, he will use nine cameras with extremely sensitive apertures, and wrap them tightly to protect them from the Himalayan frost. "This time we will manage to photograph the place", Takahashi promised, "and this will serve as a lesson to all the infidels".
