Orang Dalam Appearances
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 25th, 2006
Slowly, recovery does happen. Overcoming the hoax of the drawings, the false anticipation, and then finally the fake photos of the “johor hominid” occurs. It is surely time to move on, and get back to venturing forward with a critical look at the imagery of possibly real hominoids in the rainforest of Malaysia.
What are your thoughts on how people have represented the Orang Dalam?
The Harry Trumbore illustration (above) of the Orang Dalam places the hominoid within the True Giant classification, and is taken from The Field Guide of Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates, 2006.
Here is the Serjarang Gigi (above), which merely another name used for the Orang Dalam or Malaysian Bigfoot; this illustration shows it is indeed a giant.
Finally, remember this one? The first drawing out of Malaysia, before the unfortunate “johor hominid” sketches began to distract everyone’s attention, were the following, drawn by the locals of what they were actually and reportedly seeing.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Think there’s a lot more to Orang Dalam than just Chow & Ang’s show
The first picture looks like a Gigantopithecus. In the first and third picture the creature is seen to be grabbing a human. Are these pictures supposed to show us the difference in size between humans and said creatures, Or is there a history of people being abducted by them. Usually when a larger primate grabs a smaller one it is to invite him to dinner. Not to eat dinner but to be eaten for dinner. In pictures 2 and 4 the creature looks more like a gentle giant. One that I would much rather sup with…
Thanks for the nightmares Loren.
Picture #1 is by far, without a doubt, the single most terrifying depiction of a bigfoot type creature I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen many.
They truly are giants, to find them they must exist in the inner jungle out of human sight, maybe a cave in the hills.
If something is there in the jungle because of the hoax it will take a capture or a dead body find before anyone would believe it. What a sad, sad, sad shame.
In drawing #1, it doesn’t look so much as if the creature is “grabbing” a human, as it does some sort of dance routine! The human’s even wearing leotards.
Sorry, but the chances of a hominoid critter of that size existing without severe health problems are: slim and none.
the only thing about pic #1 is that it looks like a larger version of the orangutan. Even the body parts don’t look like it could walk upright very easily.
Sorry, but the chances of a hominoid critter of that size existing without severe health problems are: slim and none.
Can someone explain to me how it can be true that giants couldn’t be healthy, given not only the historical accounts, but folklore, Bible descriptions, and skeletons and fossils found all over the world? I’m not a professional scientist or medical expert so I’m not arguing with the statement, just have always wondered what the evidence was for it’s validity.
I came across the third picture when I was reading the book bn Endau Rompin expedition. It is an artist impression drawn based on informations gathered from the natives (orang asli)at Endau Rompin area.
ADDITIONAL INFO
I read another book “The Lost World of the East – An Adventurous Quest in the Malayan Hinterland” by Stewart Wavell, The Adventurers Club London, 1958.
The author in his 17 pages chapter on “In Search of Ape-Man” decribed the local folks encounters with these ape-men in Perak. The author interviewed three eyewitnesses (this was in the 1950’s)
Some of the descriptions of the ape-men are:
Arms thickly covered with black hair
Hairy face
Two long fang-like teeth protruded from the woman’s(ape-woman) mouth
Her body gave a strong animal smell
The witness also saw another two powerfully-built hairy men, also with the jutting canine teeth.
The ape-women made noises like a bird croaking.
The ape-men had long moustaches down to their waists.
These are not tales. A lot of the elderlies witnessed and came face to face with these creatures.
All four pictures draw on the size quality—but something bigger and more massive than yourself, might tend to cause you to exaggerate its real height I have no doubt it was bigger than your average person.
These drawings fit the parameters of our Western bigfoot, so am guessing Orang Dalam would be a cousin, so to speak. The first picture makes me think the person who gave the details really had the $%^&@#! scared out of them and added details to relay that. Can’t say as I would blame them.
TRUSTING THE WITNESS
I think most of us would like to be able to trust the veracity of observations by indiginous peoples around the world. We prefer to think of them as naturally honest.
On one hand, we may be persuaded that they would be unlikely to err in localised observations that may have been taking place over very long and extended periods of time, over terrain they are very familiar with.
On the other hand, we might argue that indiginous peoples quite naturally tend to interpret and stylize their experiences in relation to their own religious, artistic and cultural practices; in ways that make sense to their culture, but which tend to confuse the outsider. And they generally find the westernized viewpoint equally confusing.
Probably variations in interpretation are about ‘ontology’, which means the unique way in which an individual or a culture sees and interprets the world.
As individuals, we all have an ontological point of view or bias. Collectively, most cultures see things in their own specific ways as well. Some cultural observations are interpreted in more naturalistic ways than others; some are more stylized or mythologized, etc., than others.
Not very many cultures (if any), and not many individuals, no matter where they are from, will produce identical or even similar, interpretations of the same event. The ontological dilemma presents a problem for cryptozoologists all around the world.
Now that I think of it, it seems that the average North American bigfoot observation tends to be every bit as confused and confusing as those of the Orang Dalam because, understandably, most folks spend most of their brief encounter/sighting in a state of stunned shock and awe (no political inference intended).
The “imagery of possibly real hominids” truly is all over the map, in terms of detail and characteristics, no matter what part of the world we are thinking of, and no matter which peoples may be involved. And I suppose we have to be very careful in our interpretation of the viewer’s original interperetation as well.
It is unfortunate we cannot project the recorded memories of our actual sightings, stored in our brains, onto a screen for others to see. Failing that, possibly the most valuable technology capable of resolving some of these issues is the camera.
I agree with Dudlow. It is hard to get quality, unbiased witness testimony without having it be filtered through preconceived ideas and cultural beliefs. Even otherwise honest testimony could also be warped over time, as memory has a way of embellishing certain details. This is why I feel the sightings made by biologists and scientists, used to seeing things objectively, are of special importance to us when investigating these mystery animals.
the 3rd picture looks like Grendel.
grendel it is give the man a cigar!
The one consistent feature across these that DOES strike me is the broad face. In the first image, especially, it looks very much like an orangutan’s head attached to a giant hairy human body, with the characteristic “dewlaps” we see on the sides of adult male orangutan heads. The face of the Serjarang Gigi also has some pretty prominent cheeks.