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Almas (folklore)
Alleged creature in the Caucasus, Pamir and Altai mountains From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In North Caucasian and Turkic folklore, an almas, alma or almasty, is a cryptid folk creature said to inhabit the Caucasus, Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains of Central Asia and the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia.[1][2]
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Etymology
The term "almas" and numerous variants thereof appear in Mongolian, Turkic languages and Iranian languages.[a][3][4]
Scholar P. R. Rinčen (aka Byambyn Rinchen[6]) in a 1964 paper also referred to the creature as "wild man" (Mongolian: kümün görügesü, cf. "kung-guressu" of Przhevalsky below), and commented that "the origin of the old name [Almas] is quite unknown … and it does not lend itself for translation in other languages".[7][8][b]
The name is connected to a variety of place names (toponyms) in southwestern Mongolia, including Almasyn Dobo ('the Hills of Almases'), Almasyn Ulan Oula ('the Red Mountains of Almases') and ('the Red Rocks of Almases').[7]
Folk belief in the almas in Oburkhangai and Bayankhongor has resulted in a name-avoidance taboo there, wherein the entities may be referred to as akhai, meaning 'uncle-brother'.[7]
The folk traditions of Darkhad include the deity Almas khara Tenguer, meaning 'Almas the Black God' and associated with highland prairies and mountain forests. According to Rinčen, the god may be offered edible wild roots and wild animal meat.[9]
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Description
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Nikolay Przhevalsky described the almas in 1876, as related to him under the name kung-guressu ("man-beast"), as follows:
"We were told that it had a flat face like that of a human being, and that it often walked on two legs, that its body was covered with a thick black fur, and its feet armed with enormous claws; that its strength was terrible, and that not only were hunters afraid of attacking it, but that the inhabitants removed their habitations from those parts of the country which it visited".[10]
Heaney suggests that the almas should be identified with the Arimaspi, a group of legendary humanoid creatures said to inhabit the Riphean Mountains.[5]
Scholar Damdinzhavyn Maidar has provided the following description in 1981:
Almases, according to the stories of witnesses, appear half animal, half human, with reddish black hair. The face is hairless, the stomach covered with sparse growth. The head seems pointed at the occiput, the forehead flattened back with projecting brow ridges, and prominent cheekbones. They are the height of an average person. The almas walks with half-bent knees, is round-shouldered and pigeon-toed. It has broad shoulders and long arms. The women have long breasts. Almases are timid, suspicious, but not aggressive, and lead a nocturnal way of life. No-one has heard their speech.[12]
Heaney suggests that the almas should be identified with the Arimaspi, a group of legendary humanoid creatures said to inhabit the Riphean Mountains... They feed on roots and plants."[5]
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In science
In 1964, a Soviet scientist from the Soviet Academy of Sciences proposed that the Almasti could be a relict population of Neanderthals still living in Siberia.[13]
In 1992, a group of scientists went on an expedition to search for the almas in the Caucasus Mountains.[14]
A 2014 study by Bryan Sykes et al. matched the genetic fingerprints of eight hair samples of the "almasty" all from Russia, and matched them to the Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos), horse (Equus caballus) and cattle (Bos taurus).[15]
Bryan Sykes et al. also produced the controversial result that the golden-brown "yeti" sample from Ladakh[c] and the "yeti/migyhur" sample from Bhutan were a 100% match with a museum-held Pleistocene fossil polar bear, but not with any modern specimen.[15] This finding (on the 2 hair samples) was refuted by Eliécer Gutiérrez and Ronald H. Pine in 2015, who concluded there was no reason to regarde these as anything but brown bear.[16] In 2014 Ceiridwen J. Edwards and Ross Barnett also refuted the polar bear claim, and concluded the degradation of brown bear DNA to be the likely explanation.[d][17]
See also
Explanatory notes
- Rinčen also notes that Ivan T. Sanderson, one of the founders of cryptozoology, made attempts at explaining the name that are "absolutely inacceptable from the point of view of Mongolian philology".
- Ladakh lies in eastern Kashmir and administered by India but borders China which disputes the sovereignty.
- Edwards & Barnett also challenged Sykes et al.'s claim of 100% match to a Pleistocene bear as misstated in the first place, since there analysis showed 100% match to a modern polar bear in database, whereas the Pleistocene sample was off by a sequence at position 1675. Also the Pleistocene sample could be grouped with brown bears showing a C to T base mutation at position 1751.
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References
Further reading
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