Bhutan: Where the Yeti Run Free. Okay, It’s Migoli. But, You Get the Point.

Here’s a little Bhutanese trivia.

Okay. If you have an interest in cryptozoology, you may well already know this.

But it was news to me.

In the year 2001 the Royal Bhutanese government created the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, some two hundred and fifty square mile protected habitat for the Migoli. It also protects snow leopards, tigers, and pandas, but it was created for the Migoli.

According to Wikipedia, the sanctuary is designed to protect “the migoi, a yeti-like cryptid whose existence has not been scientifically confirmed, but in which the local population strongly believes. The migoi are believed to haunt the northern part of the area.” 

The Migoli are believed to be bipedal, you know, they walk upright. They are very tall. Shaggy. And reputed to be extremely dangerous. They might also possess magical powers including an ability to become invisible.

Bhutan has some pretty rugged and remote geography. Their national animal the takin, a creature with the head of a sheep and the body of a cow, while known to the local people and richly woven into religious stories, was only confirmed to be real for the outside world in the mid-nineteenth century. And they’re big. Really big.

So, at least the idea of a very large creature not yet identified by the scientific community, while pretty unlikely, cannot simply be dismissed. Not in Bhutan. And they have the reserve to prove it…