You've Heard of the Yeti, But What About the Nyalmu?

We've all heard of the Yeti in Nepal, but this article discusses some lesser known beings like the Nyalmu, the wild man of Nepali folk lore.

It's a far cry from the Yeti and nyalmu -- wild man -- of Nepali folklore. These fierce creatures would kill livestock and assault travelers. Some would kidnap a man or woman and spirit them off to the woods to live as its mate, even bearing hybrid children. In one particularly gruesome folktale, a kidnapped man escapes his nyalmu "wife" with one of their two children - and in her rage at being abandoned, the nyalmu smashes their second child against a boulder and devours it.

However not all Yeti tales are violent. Legends also tell of the Buddhist Lama Sange Dorje, who befriended a Yeti, invited it into his home and lived with the creature until it perished in a landslide. The Yeti's scalp currently resides in the Pangboche monastery, though tests indicate it's actually from the shoulder of a hoofed mammal.

But despite its fame, the Yeti isn't the only -- or even the most important -- monster lurking in the Himalayas. Indeed, Nepali folklore has a veritable army of demons and ghosts that are more than a match for the wild man of the snows.

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