Ape, Man or What?

The Barmanou (or Barmanu) is a bipedal humanoid primate cryptid reported to be living in the mountainous region of North Western Pakistan. Sightings have been reported by shepherds living in the mountains. The word Barmanou, which is used for the Pakistani equivalent of American Bigfoot or Tibetan Yeti, is also used in several regional Pakistani languages, including Khowar (in Chitral), Shina (in GB) and Kashmiri.

The proposed range of Barmanou is in the Chitral and Karakoram ranges, between the Pamirs and Himalaya. Thus, this puts its range between two cryptids — Almas of Central Asia and Yeti of Himalayas.

Barmanou is supposed to possess both human and ape-like characteristics, including the tendency to abduct women and attempting to mate with them. In the last few decades, though no such incidences of abduction and rape of local women by this creature have been reported. Some witnesses have reportedly seen this creature wearing animal skins on its back and head.

Barmanou appears in the folklore of the northern regions of Pakistan and nearly all the stories tend to describe it as an ape or a wild man. Sightings of Barmanou have been reported from the Alai valley in Kohistan district as well. Some local witnesses and nomadic Gujjar shepherds taking herds to remote pastures in high ranges in this area consider the encounters with this wild ape man as a routine matter.

During my frequent ramblings in Kohistan and neighbouring Chilas districts in connection with Diamer Bhasha Dam project, I could not record a credible sighting of this creature by the locals.

The mystery of this wild man deepens when one considers the fact that none of the witnesses or investigating zoologists has ever discovered its dwelling and only have vague references of caves or an underground abode. It is equally intriguing that nobody has been able to photograph the elusive being.

Jordi Fedrico Magraner, born in Catalan, Spain in June 1967, was among the leading cryptozoologist of the world. Cryptozoology is a specialised field of zoology dealing with the study of and search for animals and especially legendary animals (as Yeti) in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence on scientific grounds.

Magraner came to Chitral in 1992 in search of Barmanu, the Pakistani equivalent of the abominable snowman. He, along with his team, combed the wild heights of Hindukush searching for scientific evidence regarding the presence of this legendary creature. From the valleys of Kafiristan sometimes Magraner would wander for weeks in Nuristan, the neighbouring province in Afghanistan.

In May 1994, during his trek to the Shishi Kuh valley in the Chitral, Jordi Magraner, Dr. Anne Mallasseand and another associate, all Europeans, reportedly heard two series of unusual guttural sounds that could have been made only by a primitive primate voicebox. It was late in the evening and, in fading light, it was not possible to follow the creature making the calls. But the team tracked down witnesses who claimed to have seen the foul smelling animal that made the sounds.

I tried to gather more information about Jordi Magraner, an amazing man with extraordinary interests from the local population.

Ape, man or what?

The mythical Barmanou.

The Barmanou (or Barmanu) is a bipedal humanoid primate cryptid reported to be living in the mountainous region of North Western Pakistan. Sightings have been reported by shepherds living in the mountains. The word Barmanou, which is used for the Pakistani equivalent of American Bigfoot or Tibetan Yeti, is also used in several regional Pakistani languages, including Khowar (in Chitral), Shina (in GB) and Kashmiri.

The proposed range of Barmanou is in the Chitral and Karakoram ranges, between the Pamirs and Himalaya. Thus, this puts its range between two cryptids — Almas of Central Asia and Yeti of Himalayas.

Barmanou is supposed to possess both human and ape-like characteristics, including the tendency to abduct women and attempting to mate with them. In the last few decades, though no such incidences of abduction and rape of local women by this creature have been reported. Some witnesses have reportedly seen this creature wearing animal skins on its back and head.

Barmanou appears in the folklore of the northern regions of Pakistan and nearly all the stories tend to describe it as an ape or a wild man. Sightings of Barmanou have been reported from the Alai valley in Kohistan district as well. Some local witnesses and nomadic Gujjar shepherds taking herds to remote pastures in high ranges in this area consider the encounters with this wild ape man as a routine matter.

During my frequent ramblings in Kohistan and neighbouring Chilas districts in connection with Diamer Bhasha Dam project, I could not record a credible sighting of this creature by the locals.