Almas (folklore)

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Infobox mythical creature 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

EtymologyEdit

The term "almas" and numerous variants thereof appear in Mongolian, Turkic languages and Iranian languages.Template:Efn Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Scholar P. R. Rinčen (aka Byambyn Rinchen Template:Refn) in a 1964 paper also referred to the creature as "wild man" (Mongolian: Template:Transliteration, 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".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Efn

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').Template:Sfn

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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, meaning 'uncle-brother'.Template:Sfn

The folk traditions of Darkhad include the deity {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 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.Template:Sfn

DescriptionEdit

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".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Heaney suggests that the almas should be identified with the Arimaspi, a group of legendary humanoid creatures said to inhabit the Riphean Mountains.Template:Sfn

Scholar Template:Interlanguage link 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.Template:Refn

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."Template:Sfn

In scienceEdit

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1992, a group of scientists went on an expedition to search for the almas in the Caucasus Mountains.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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).<ref name="sykes-etal2014">Template:Cite journal (html@zookeys.pensoft.net)</ref>

Bryan Sykes et al. also produced the controversial result that the golden-brown "yeti" sample from Ladakh Template:Efn 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.<ref name="sykes-etal2014"/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.Template:Efn<ref name="edwards&barnett2014">Template:Cite journal (html@zookeys.pensoft.net)</ref>

Explanatory notesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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SourcesEdit

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Template:Cite journal Heaney's {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}, pp. 53–66.
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