CONTINENT FILE

Cryptids of Asia & the Middle East

The Yeti of the Himalaya, Japan’s yōkai and the wildmen of Central Asia.

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Japan6 cryptidsChina5 cryptidsIndonesia4 cryptidsBhutan2 cryptidsMalaysia2 cryptidsMongolia2 cryptidsIndia1 cryptidNepal1 cryptidVietnam1 cryptid

Cryptids of Asia & the Middle East

Black-and-white photograph of a large footprint in snow beside an ice axe, taken by Eric Shipton on the Menlung Glacier in 1951 HOMINID · 1921

Yeti

Khumbu and the high Himalaya, Nepal

The Himalaya’s “Abominable Snowman”: a Sherpa legend made global by footprint photos, monastery relics and DNA studies that kept finding bears.

WIDELY REPORTED Detail of a bestiary drawing by Katsushika Hokusai showing a kappa LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1444

Kappa

Rivers, ponds and marshes throughout Japan

Japan’s child-sized river imp, with a water-filled dish on its head and a love of cucumbers and sumo – once feared for drownings, now a beloved mascot.

FOLKLORE Sand dunes of Khongoryn Els in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, southern Mongolia OTHER · 1922

Mongolian Death Worm

Southern and western Gobi Desert, Mongolia

A blood-red, sausage-shaped worm said to lurk beneath the Gobi’s dunes and kill with venom or an electric jolt – Mongolia’s most famous desert legend.

REGIONAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1876

Almas

Altai Mountains and Gobi margins of Mongolia

Central Asia’s “wild man”: a hairy, human-like figure reported from the Altai and Gobi to the Pamirs and Caucasus, once hailed as a surviving Neanderthal.

REGIONAL LEGEND Lake Gunung Tujuh, a crater lake ringed by forested peaks in Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra HOMINID · 1910

Orang Pendek

Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra

A short, powerfully built upright ape said to roam Sumatra’s Kerinci forests – the Southeast Asian cryptid taken most seriously by field researchers.

WIDELY REPORTED The wide limestone entrance of Liang Bua cave on Flores, where Homo floresiensis remains were found in 2003 HOMINID · Pre-colonial

Ebu Gogo

Nage country, central Flores

Small, hairy “grandmothers who eat anything” from the folklore of Flores – a tale that drew new attention after the 2003 discovery of the hobbit.

FOLKLORE Brokpa performers in traditional dress dancing in eastern Bhutan HOMINID · Traditional

Migoi

Merak and Sakteng highlands, eastern Bhutan

Bhutan’s “strong man” of the high forests, a yeti-like being of Brokpa tradition with a wildlife sanctuary often said to be set aside for it.

REGIONAL LEGEND LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1903

Lake Tianchi Monster

Heaven Lake (Tianchi), Changbai Mountain, Jilin

Dark shapes and seal-like heads reported in Heaven Lake, the deep volcanic crater lake on Changbai Mountain at the China–North Korea border.

REGIONAL LEGEND Dense mountain forest in the former Kon Tum province of Vietnam’s Central Highlands HOMINID · 1974

Batutut (Người Rừng)

Central Highlands of Vietnam and the forests of northern Borneo

Vietnam’s “forest people” – upright, hairy wildmen reported by highland villagers, wartime soldiers and a state-backed search that began in 1974.

REGIONAL LEGEND HOMINID · 1976

Yeren

Shennongjia Forestry District, Hubei, China

China’s red-haired “wildman” of the Shennongjia forests in Hubei, the subject of state-backed expeditions since a famous roadside sighting in 1976.

REGIONAL LEGEND Woodblock illustration of the nozuchi, a mallet-shaped serpent, from the Edo-period encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue REPTILIAN · 1972

Tsuchinoko

Mountain villages of central and western Japan

A fat-bodied, short-tailed snake said to leap, roll and even speak – Japan’s favorite cryptid, hunted every spring for prizes worth millions of yen.

REGIONAL LEGEND LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1980

Lake Kanas Monster

Kanas Lake, Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang

Huge red shapes said to haunt Kanas Lake in Xinjiang’s Altai Mountains – a legend most scientists now credit to giant taimen, the world’s largest salmon.

REGIONAL LEGEND Lake Ikeda with the cone of Mount Kaimon rising behind it LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1978

Issie

Lake Ikeda, Ibusuki, Kagoshima

The “Nessie” of southern Kyushu, seen as dark humps in Lake Ikeda, a deep volcanic crater lake that really is home to enormous eels nearly two meters long.

REGIONAL LEGEND Lake Kussharo seen from the west, in Teshikaga, Hokkaido LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1972

Kussie

Lake Kussharo, Teshikaga, eastern Hokkaido

Hokkaido’s answer to Nessie: a humped creature reported in Lake Kussharo, Japan’s largest caldera lake, during a wave of sightings in the 1970s.

REGIONAL LEGEND Mount Hiba and Mount Tate-eboshi seen from Mount Azuma in northern Hiroshima Prefecture HOMINID · 1970

Hibagon

Mount Hiba, Saijō (now Shōbara), Hiroshima

A gorilla-like ape-man reported around Mount Hiba in Hiroshima in the early 1970s – so many calls came in that the town hall opened an “ape section.”

REGIONAL LEGEND A river running through dense rainforest in Endau-Rompin National Park, Malaysia HOMINID · 2005

Orang Mawas

Endau-Rompin and the forests of Johor

Malaysia’s “Bigfoot”: a towering, hairy forest giant of Johor whose reported 2005 sighting sparked an official state expedition in 2006.

REGIONAL LEGEND A tropical beach backed by dense forest on Seram Island in Maluku, Indonesia FLYING · Pre-colonial

Orang Bati

Seram Island, Maluku

Winged, child-snatching beings said to fly from a mountain on Seram – a legend that has long overshadowed the real Bati people of the island’s interior.

FOLKLORE LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 2000s

Ningen

Southern Ocean off Antarctica

A pale, whale-sized humanoid said to haunt Antarctic waters – an internet-age legend born on a Japanese message board and spread by a paranormal magazine.

FOLKLORE Large flying foxes, a real Indonesian bat often suggested as the source of ahool reports, flying at dusk near Rinca, Indonesia FLYING · 1925

Ahool

Mount Salak and the rainforests of western Java

A giant, monkey-faced bat said to swoop over the waterfalls of Java’s Mount Salak, named after its eerie “a-hool” cry in the night.

REGIONAL LEGEND