Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts or just the plain unexplainable.
This week: Cryptozoology/Myths
"What is an Almas?" you may be asking yourself. "Why it's a modern-day caveman," you likely answered yourself if you kept reading the headline up there. And you know what? You're exactly right. Almas is a modern-day caveman type creature most often sighted in Mongolia. At one time it was treated realistically enough to be included in medical books, and there have been more than a few recorded sightings of the thing.
Fascinating, right? Well read on then.
hecklerspray has brought you a bigfoot story or two in the course of our multi-century history, and the Almas might easily be confused with his more commonly known cousin. The two are quite different though, in that the Almas is far more man-like. He's smaller than a bigfoot, Hans Schiltenberger was held captive by the Mongols in or around 1427, and he describes what he saw with his own eyes:
"In the mountains themselves live wild people, who have nothing in common with other human beings. A pelt covers the entire body of these creatures. Only the hands and face are free of hair. They run around in the hills like animals and eat foliage and grass and whatever else they can find. The lord of the territory made Egidi a present of a couple of forest people, a man and a woman. They had been caught in the wilderness, together with three untamed horses the size of asses and all sorts of other animals which are not found in German lands and which I cannot therefore put a name to."
But Schiltenberger hasn't been the only non-Mongol to describe the creatures. Professor Tysben Zhamtsarano did too, and according to the website Unknown Explorers:
"Between 1890 and 1928, Professor Tysben Zhamtsarano reportedly conducted research into the existence of the Almas but, as was too often the case in Stalin's Russia, the esteemed scientist was sent to a gulag and apparently his notes and illustrations, which detailed his numerous expeditions, a perished with him. Zhamtsarano's assistant, Dordji Meiren, even claimed to have seen an Almas skin, which was preserved in a Buddhist monastery near Mongolia's Gobi region."
A man named Ivan Ivlov saw an entire family of Almas in 1963. His experience made him wonder what the locals knew about the creatures, so he started asking around. He found out that a lot of his child-patients had experiences with the cavemen children close-up, and according to Wikipedia:
"Ivlov's driver also claimed to have seen them."
Maybe 'Caveman' is too harsh a term. Perhaps it's simply a tribe of people hidden in the wilds of Mongolia still untouched my the modern world. Granted, it'd be awfully hard to be that untouched as by the sounds of things they haven't even turned agrarian yet, but it could still be a possibility.
If this is the case, and the Almas really are modern cavemen, think of how relieved they must feel. We mean seriously, not having to fight Pterodactyls anymore would be such a weight off.
That always looks so difficult in the movies.
Read More:
Almas (cryptozoology) – Wikipedia
Dakk says
I remember seeing documentaries on TV that showed humanoids that were completely covered with fur except for their hands and faces.
They were Mongolians who lived in tribal castes and dressed themselves similar to the Eskimos who wear animal furs to protect themselves from the weather and obviously modern humans. The Eskimos also are totally covered except for their hands and faces and also quite human.
People are idiots.
happygorrill says
Almas are real people I am convince of their existence based on recorded documents. Almas are different from the Neandertals. Wait for my upcoming book, “The Natural Process of Chromosme Fusion and The Creation of New Specie”. A new theory which shock the world.