The Yeti Scalp of Khumjung
A monastery near Everest keeps a conical, hairy 'yeti scalp'. Edmund Hillary took it around the world to be tested.
What was reported
The Buddhist monastery in Khumjung, a Sherpa village below Mount Everest, keeps a tall, cone-shaped scalp covered in coarse reddish hair, said to have come from a yeti. Villagers regard it as a treasure that protects the village.
In 1960, Edmund Hillary, who had made the first ascent of Everest, led an expedition looking for the yeti. The village agreed to let him borrow the scalp, on condition that a village elder went with it, and that Hillary paid for repairs to the monastery and a school.
Explanations offered
Scientists who examined it concluded it had been moulded from the hide of a serow, a Himalayan goat-antelope. The scalp was returned to Khumjung, where it is still shown to trekkers today.
- When
- Examined in 1960
- Where
- Khumjung Monastery, Solukhumbu, Nepal
- Witnesses
- Monks and villagers; Edmund Hillary's expedition
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.