The Friendly Yeti
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v6i1.71Keywords:
yeti, Tibetan religions, phenomenology, Schutz, Buddhism, bodhisattvaAbstract
Most images of yetis in Western popular culture and scholarly literature portray them as secular, predatory monsters. These representations overlook important religious dimensions of yetis that are hidden in the current literature so I take a new look at yetis in Tibetan religions in order to clarify our understanding of these legendary creatures. Following a phenomenological approach that sets aside the issue of the ontological existence of yetis, I examine texts, art, ritual, and folklore in order to propose four yeti personal ideal types: the Buddhist practitioner, the human religious ally, the friendly yeti, and the mountain deity yeti. These ideal types enhance earlier scholarship by demonstrating that yetis may appear in friendly as well as dangerous guises, may play religious roles even when they are not venerated, and may embody numinosity even when they are most fearsome.References
Bjonness, Inger-Marie. 1986. ‘Mountain Hazard Perception and Risk-Avoiding Strategies among the Sherpas of Khumbu Himal, Nepal’, Mountain Research and Development 6.4: 277-92. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3673369.
Chidester, David. 2005. Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Choden, Kunsang. 1997. Bhutanese Tales of the Yeti (Bangkok: White Lotus Company).
Das, Surya. 1992. The Snow Lion’s Turquoise Mane (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco).
Eiseley, Loren. 1969. The Unexpected Universe (San Diego: Harcourt Brace & World).
Eliade, Mircea. 1958. Patterns in Comparative Religion (New York: New American Library).
Ferguson, Harvie. 2006. Phenomenological Sociology: Experience and Insight into Modern Society (London: Sage Publications).
Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von. 1964. The Sherpas of Nepal: Buddhist Highlanders (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press).
Hallowell, A. Irving. 1976. Contributions to Anthropology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Harris, Ian. 2006. ‘“A Vast Unsupervised Recycling Plant”: Animals and the Buddhist Cosmos’, in Paul Waldau and Kimberly Patton (eds.), A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics (New York: Columbia University Press): 207-17.
Hillary, Sir Edmund. 2000. View from the Summit (London: Corgi Books).
Hobgood-Oster, Laura. 2008. Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press).
Hodgson, Brian H. 1832. ‘On the Mammalia of Nepal’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 1.8: 335-49.
Huber, Toni. 1999. The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet (New York: Oxford University Press).
Jackson, Michael. 1996. ‘Introduction: Phenomenology, Radical Empiricism, and Anthropological Critique’, in Michael Jackson (ed.), Things as they Are: New Directions in Phenomenological Anthropology (Bloomington: Indiana University Press): 1-50.
———. 2002. ‘Familiar and Foreign Bodies: A Phenomenological Exploration of the Human–Technology Interface’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 8.2: 333-46. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.00006.
Meldrum, Jeff. 2006. Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science (New York: Tom Doherty Associates).
Messner, Reinhold. 2000. My Quest for the Yeti (trans. Peter Constantine; New York: St. Martin’s Press).
Midgley, Mary. 1978. Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (Ithaca: Cornell University Press).
Morris, Brian. 1998. The Power of Animals (Oxford: Berg).
———. 2000. Animals and Ancestors (Oxford: Berg).
Napier, John. 1973. Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality (New York: E.P. Dutton).
Nath, Tribhuvan, and Madan M. Gupta. 1994. On the Yeti Trail (New Delhi: UBS Publishers’ Distributors).
Nebesky-Wojkowitz, René de. 1957. Where the Gods Are Mountains (trans. Michael Bullock; New York: Reynal & Company).
———. 1975 [1956]. Oracles and Demons of Tibet (Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt).
Noske, Barbara. 1997. Beyond Boundaries: Humans and Animals (Montreal: Black Rose Books).
Ortner, Sherry B. 1989. High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Otto, Rudolf. 1958. The Idea of the Holy (trans. John W. Harvey; New York: Oxford University Press).
Peters, Larry G. 2004. The Yeti: Spirit of Himalayan Forest Shamans (Delhi: Nirala Publications).
Prince-Hughes, Dawn. 2001. The Archetype of the Ape-Man (Dissertation.com).
Sanderson, Ivan T. 1968. Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life (New York: Pyramid Books).
Schaller, George B. 1998. Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Schutz, Alfred. 1967. The Phenomenology of the Social World (trans. George Walsh and Frederick Lehnert; Evanston: Northwestern University Press).
Shackley, Myra. 1983. Still Living? Yeti, Sasquatch, and the Neanderthal Enigma (New York: Thames & Hudson).
———. 1994. Monastic Ritual and Extinct Animals: The Significance of a Meh-the Mask at the Nqon-Ga Janqhub Ling Monthang Choedhe Gompa, Nepal/ Tibet’, Anthrozoös 7.2: 82-84. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/089279394787001925.
Shepard, Paul. 1996. The Others: How Animals Made Us Human (Washington, DC: Island Press).
Siiger, Halfdan. 1978. ‘The “Abominable Snowman”: Himalayan Religion and Folklore from the Lepchas of Sikkim’, in James F. Fisher (ed.), Himalayan Anthropology: The Indo-Tibetan Interface (The Hague: Mouton): 421-30.
Snellgrove, David L. 1995 [1957]. Buddhist Himalaya (Kathmandu: Himalayan Book Sellers).
Stein, Rolf A. 1972. Tibetan Civilization (trans. J.E. Stapleton Driver; Stanford: Stanford University Press).
Stonor, Charles. 1955. The Sherpa and the Snowman (London: Hollis & Carter).
Vl?ek, Emanuel. 1959. ‘Old Literary Evidence for the Existence of the “Snow Man” in Tibet and Mongolia’, Man 59: 133-34.
Wangmo, Jamyang. 2008. Dancing in the Clouds: The Mani Rimdu, Dumche, and Tsogchen Festivals of the Khumbu Sherpas (Kathmandu: Vajra Publications).
Chidester, David. 2005. Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Choden, Kunsang. 1997. Bhutanese Tales of the Yeti (Bangkok: White Lotus Company).
Das, Surya. 1992. The Snow Lion’s Turquoise Mane (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco).
Eiseley, Loren. 1969. The Unexpected Universe (San Diego: Harcourt Brace & World).
Eliade, Mircea. 1958. Patterns in Comparative Religion (New York: New American Library).
Ferguson, Harvie. 2006. Phenomenological Sociology: Experience and Insight into Modern Society (London: Sage Publications).
Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von. 1964. The Sherpas of Nepal: Buddhist Highlanders (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press).
Hallowell, A. Irving. 1976. Contributions to Anthropology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Harris, Ian. 2006. ‘“A Vast Unsupervised Recycling Plant”: Animals and the Buddhist Cosmos’, in Paul Waldau and Kimberly Patton (eds.), A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics (New York: Columbia University Press): 207-17.
Hillary, Sir Edmund. 2000. View from the Summit (London: Corgi Books).
Hobgood-Oster, Laura. 2008. Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press).
Hodgson, Brian H. 1832. ‘On the Mammalia of Nepal’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 1.8: 335-49.
Huber, Toni. 1999. The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet (New York: Oxford University Press).
Jackson, Michael. 1996. ‘Introduction: Phenomenology, Radical Empiricism, and Anthropological Critique’, in Michael Jackson (ed.), Things as they Are: New Directions in Phenomenological Anthropology (Bloomington: Indiana University Press): 1-50.
———. 2002. ‘Familiar and Foreign Bodies: A Phenomenological Exploration of the Human–Technology Interface’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 8.2: 333-46. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.00006.
Meldrum, Jeff. 2006. Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science (New York: Tom Doherty Associates).
Messner, Reinhold. 2000. My Quest for the Yeti (trans. Peter Constantine; New York: St. Martin’s Press).
Midgley, Mary. 1978. Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (Ithaca: Cornell University Press).
Morris, Brian. 1998. The Power of Animals (Oxford: Berg).
———. 2000. Animals and Ancestors (Oxford: Berg).
Napier, John. 1973. Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality (New York: E.P. Dutton).
Nath, Tribhuvan, and Madan M. Gupta. 1994. On the Yeti Trail (New Delhi: UBS Publishers’ Distributors).
Nebesky-Wojkowitz, René de. 1957. Where the Gods Are Mountains (trans. Michael Bullock; New York: Reynal & Company).
———. 1975 [1956]. Oracles and Demons of Tibet (Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt).
Noske, Barbara. 1997. Beyond Boundaries: Humans and Animals (Montreal: Black Rose Books).
Ortner, Sherry B. 1989. High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Otto, Rudolf. 1958. The Idea of the Holy (trans. John W. Harvey; New York: Oxford University Press).
Peters, Larry G. 2004. The Yeti: Spirit of Himalayan Forest Shamans (Delhi: Nirala Publications).
Prince-Hughes, Dawn. 2001. The Archetype of the Ape-Man (Dissertation.com).
Sanderson, Ivan T. 1968. Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life (New York: Pyramid Books).
Schaller, George B. 1998. Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Schutz, Alfred. 1967. The Phenomenology of the Social World (trans. George Walsh and Frederick Lehnert; Evanston: Northwestern University Press).
Shackley, Myra. 1983. Still Living? Yeti, Sasquatch, and the Neanderthal Enigma (New York: Thames & Hudson).
———. 1994. Monastic Ritual and Extinct Animals: The Significance of a Meh-the Mask at the Nqon-Ga Janqhub Ling Monthang Choedhe Gompa, Nepal/ Tibet’, Anthrozoös 7.2: 82-84. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/089279394787001925.
Shepard, Paul. 1996. The Others: How Animals Made Us Human (Washington, DC: Island Press).
Siiger, Halfdan. 1978. ‘The “Abominable Snowman”: Himalayan Religion and Folklore from the Lepchas of Sikkim’, in James F. Fisher (ed.), Himalayan Anthropology: The Indo-Tibetan Interface (The Hague: Mouton): 421-30.
Snellgrove, David L. 1995 [1957]. Buddhist Himalaya (Kathmandu: Himalayan Book Sellers).
Stein, Rolf A. 1972. Tibetan Civilization (trans. J.E. Stapleton Driver; Stanford: Stanford University Press).
Stonor, Charles. 1955. The Sherpa and the Snowman (London: Hollis & Carter).
Vl?ek, Emanuel. 1959. ‘Old Literary Evidence for the Existence of the “Snow Man” in Tibet and Mongolia’, Man 59: 133-34.
Wangmo, Jamyang. 2008. Dancing in the Clouds: The Mani Rimdu, Dumche, and Tsogchen Festivals of the Khumbu Sherpas (Kathmandu: Vajra Publications).
Published
2012-04-11
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Capper, D. (2012). The Friendly Yeti. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 6(1), 71-87. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v6i1.71
