FT261

I’m always pleased to receive an update of an ostensibly long-forgotten cryptozoological story, especially when it’s a personal favourite of mine, like this one. As reported by Heuvelmans, myself, and others, back in 1953 a Tibetan lama called Chemed Rigdzin Dorje Lopu announced that he had personally examined the mummified bodies of two yetis – one at the monastery at Riwoche in the Tibetan province of Kham, the other in the monast­ery at Sakya, southern Tibet. According to Heuvelmans’s account of this lama’s very interesting claim: “They were enormous monkeys about 2.40m high. They had thick flat skulls and their bodies were covered with dark brown hair about 3 to 5cm long. Their tails were extremely short.”

The thought that such extraordinarily significant crypto­zoological relics (if genuine) might still survive today has long intrigued me. Consequently, I was delighted when in February 2010 Peter Pesavento informed me that he had been pursuing this mystery himself, and had emailed both monasteries. Unfortunately, he did not receive a reply from Sakya, but Samten O’Sullivan had very recently replied to him on behalf of Riwoche. Samten informed Peter that, tragically, the monast­ery had been razed to the ground following China’s annexing of Tibet and all of its precious contents had been looted or burnt. Consequently, although the monastery was rebuilt (and as an exact replica of the original), any yeti mummy that might have been in the original building is certainly not present in the new one. Whether it was removed and taken elsewhere or simply destroyed, however, is another matter, which seems unlikely ever to be resolved. Nevertheless, even knowing where something is not (namely, in the new Riwoche monastery) is still better than knowing nothing about it at all.

Peter Pesavento, pers. comm., 13 Feb 2010.