Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Over the years, Academy officials had received many similar reports from the same region of Hubei province. So when they heard about this incident, they decided to thoroughly investigate the matter. A scientific expedition consisting of more than 100 members proceeded to Hubei province. They collected physical evidence, in the form of hair, footprints, and feces, and recorded sightings by the local inhabitants (Yuan and Huang 1979). Subsequent research has added to these results.

Altogether, more than a thousand footprints have been found in Hubei province, some more than 19 inches long (Poirier et al. 1983, p. 34). Over 100 hairs have been collected, the longest measuring 21 inches. Some of the hairs were supplied by persons who claimed to have seen wildmen; others were taken from trees against which wildmen were said to have rubbed. Frank E. Poirier, an anthropologist at Ohio State University, reported (Poirier et al. 1983, p. 33): “The hair was studied by the Hubei Provincial Medical College and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. The general consensus is that the hair belongs to a higher primate (monkey, ape, or human).”

Some have sought to explain sightings of wildmen in the Shennongjia region of Hubei province as encounters with the rare golden monkey, which inhabits the same area. The golden monkey might very well account for reports of creatures glimpsed for a moment at a great distance. But consider the case of Pang Gensheng, a local commune leader, who was confronted in the forest by a wildman.

Pang, who stood face to face with the creature, at a distance of five feet for about an hour, said: “He was about seven feet tall, with shoulders wider than a man’s, a sloping forehead, deep-set eyes and a bulbous nose with slightly upturned nostrils. He had sunken cheeks, ears like a man’s but bigger, and round eyes, also bigger than a man’s. His jaw jutted out and he had protruding lips. His front teeth were as broad as a horse’s. His eyes were black. His hair was dark brown, more than a foot long and hung loosely over his shoulders. His whole face, except for the nose and ears, was covered with short hairs. His arms hung down to below his knees. He had big hands with fingers about six inches long and thumbs only slightly separated from the fingers. He didn’t have a tail and the hair on his body was short. He had thick thighs, shorter than the lower part of his leg. He walked upright with his legs apart. His feet were each about 12 inches long and half that broad—broader in front and narrow behind, with splayed toes” (Yuan and Huang 1979, pp. 58–59).

Zhou Guoxing has suggested that the wildman of Hubei province might be a relict population of Gigantopithecus, a large apelike hominid that inhabited southern China during the Middle Pleistocene. Zhou noted that in the forests of Hubei province some types of trees from the Tertiary have survived, as have the panda and other mammals from the Middle Pleistocene (Zhou, G. 1982, p. 22).

10.10 Wildmen of Malaysia And Indonesia

In 1969, John McKinnon, who journeyed to Borneo to observe orangutans, came across some humanlike footprints. McKinnon asked his Malay boatman what made them. “Without a moment’s hesitation he replied ‘Batutut,’” wrote McKinnon, “but when I asked him to describe the beast he said it was not an animal but a type of ghost. . . . Batutut, he told me, is about four feet tall, walks upright like a man and has a long black mane. . . . Like other spirits of the forest the creature is very shy of light and fire” (Green 1978, p. 134).

Later, in Malaya, McKinnon saw some casts of footprints even bigger than those he had seen in Borneo, but he recognized them as definitely having been made by the same kind of creature. The Malayans called it Orangpendek (short fellow). McKinnon stated: “Again natives spoke of a creature with long hair, who walks upright like a man. Drawings and even photographs of similar footprints found in Sumatra are attributed to the Sedapa or Umang, a small, shy, long-haired, bipedal being living deep in the forest” (Green 1978, pp. 134 –135). According to Ivan Sanderson, these footprints differ from those of the anthropoid apes inhabiting the Indonesian forests (the gibbon, siamang, and orangutan). They are also distinct from those of the sun bear (Sanderson 1961, p. 219).