The Life and Times of the Russian Almas/Yeti (Wildman)

Editor’s Note: This is a post by Bigfoot Evidence contributor, Damian Bravo, a Sasquatch believer. You can join Damian's group Sasquatch Lives? on Facebook and the group's official page at www.sasquatchlives.com.

The Almas-- is it a beast or a man? We have heard stories of a hominoid stuck in prehistoric time; a relic of our past. In the vast landscape of Russia, roughly 3 times the size of North America, a man-like creature is being encountered in many areas of the continent. From the descriptions, many are saying that what they have seen more likely resembles the extinct Neanderthal man. Science believes Neanderthals died off tens of thousands of years ago because of the lack of food in its environment which they had to share with modern men. Could it be that in the vast wilderness of the Russian continent some have survive in isolation and are the Wildman that many swear seeing roaming the desolate mountains and plains of Russia?

In the 1970’s professor Boris Porchnev, of the Moscow Academy of Sciences, described the Almas based on detailed stories from people who had seen it. The professor was a Soviet historian and doctor of social sciences working on the psychology, prehistory and neurolinguistics related to the origins of man.

Below is the description taken from the Porchnev report published in in Russia in the 70s:

"There is no under layer of hair so that the skin can sometimes be seen. The head rises to a cone-shaped peak," it continues, and "the teeth are like a man's, but larger, with the canines more widely separated. The Alma can run as fast as a horse and swim in swift currents. Breeding pairs remain together living in holes in the ground. For food they eat small animals and vegetables. The creatures are mainly active at night."

The report also explained a distasteful smell.

Professor Proshnev surmised from the evidence at the time that the creature could be the last surviving group of Neanderthal men. Other western researchers at the time, including Dr. Myra Shackely, of Leicester University in England, agree with him. Shackely, had visited Russia in the 70’s, and found in her research that the entire area is filled with artifacts from the Neanderthal period. She stated, if Neanderthal had to survive the habitat in the areas were the Almas had been reported would had been perfect for them to maintain a good existence.

Antropoligist Myra Lesley Shackley was born in 1949 and was the former Professor of Culture Resource Management and Head of the Centre for Tourism and Visitor Management at Nottingham Business School. She retired in 2011 after a career which lasted 40 years and she was recognized as one of the leading international authorities on the management of historic locations.

An interesting connection with the Almas/Yeti and Doctor Shackley is that In 1959, actor James Stewart, while visiting India had smuggled the remains of a supposed Yeti which turned out to be the famous Pangboche Hand. Stewart concealed it in a piece of his luggage, from his trip from India to London, which the Doctor Shackley studied with other scientist at the time.

The Pangboche hand and Almas scalp 1954

In 1960, an expedition was mounted to collect and analyze physical evidence of the Yeti. The expedition brought back a supposed Yeti "scalp" from the Khumjung Monastery to the West for testing and the results indicated the scalp was manufactured from the skin of a Serow, a goat-like Himalayan antelope. Here is the interesting part… Anthropologist Myra Shackley disagreed with this conclusion on the grounds that the "hairs from the scalp look distinctly monkey-like and that it contained parasitic mites of a species different from the hair samples recovered from the Serow.

Picture of a Serow

Alma’s sightings have been documented as early as the 15 century in the USSR before its collapse. In 1430, Hans Schiltberger recorded some personal observation of Almas in a journal from a trip to Mongolia which he was a prisoner of the Mongol Khan. Nikolai Przhevalsky came across them in Mongolia in 1871 and noted that Almas are described in the Mongolian and Tibetan apothecary's Materia Medica a book containing drawings and descriptions of medicinal plants and animals which included the Almas/Yeti.

One of the most famous stories of the Almas/Yeti of Russia, is the tale of Zana, the story indicates Zana was an Almas/Yeti. The wild woman lived in the mountain village of T’khina which was located in a remote area fifty miles from Sukhumi in Abkhazia in the Caucasus of Russia. Zana was reported to be captured sometime in 1850 and it even indicates that the wild woman, once tamed, had sexual relations with a man named Edgi Genaba. From Genanba she gave birth to several children who looked quiet human like. Some believe that Zana’s bloodline still exist in Russia.

Damian Bravo

Contributing writer for:

bigfootevidence.blogspot.com
www.sasquatchlives.com