The yeti’s Wife

(This story comes from Eastern Bhutan. I heard this story from my grandfather as I was helping him to herd our family cattle when we used to live in the village)

Long ago, Tshomo, a teenage girl lived with her parents in a remote village. They made their living by herding cattle. They took turn to graze their cattle in different grazing ground in different seasons. The cattle were shifted up in the highland in the summer and brought back to the villages in the winter.One summer, Tshomo was looking after her herd with her friends when she wandered a little further than her usual place. When she realized that she retraced her path but soon discovered that she had lost her way. Climbing up a top of a hill she shouted for HELP but no one came. Dusk was creeping in, so she started crying. A dark shadow appeared in front of her horrifying her and she fainted. It picked her up and carried her towards the interior of the mountains.


When she came to her sense, she looked around to see where she was and realized that she was in a HUGE dark cave. She could see a huge furry creature at the far end of the cave. It was snoring and it echoed inside the cave making the most terrifying sound. She sat glued in her place trembling with fear. Her hair stood at its end and she could think of nothing. After sometime, the creature rose and moved towards her. She tried to move but could not. It came in front of her and looked at her with kind eyes. It could not speak so it made some gestures and brought some raw meat for her. She could clearly see the creature now. It was a MEGEOI (Yeti) feared by the villagers. As a child she had heard many tales about yeti and most of them were not pleasant ones. She could not bring herself to eat anything out of horror and panic. She went hungry that night.

When she woke up the next day, the cave was dark with the entrance closed with a huge rock. There was no way she could get out, so she cried upon her helplessness. By the evening, her eyes were red and swollen and she became weak with hunger and thirst. The Yeti returned bringing a dead deer and roasted it for dinner. She took a small bite.

Days passed and the yeti always left her in the cave with the entrance shut whenever he went out so that she could not escape.

Down in the village, people searched every nook and corner for Tshomo but in vain. Believing her to be dead, her parents performed her funeral rites and gradually they gave up the hope of finding her again.

Back in the cave, Tshomo was kept as the Yeti’s bride. Soon she gave birth to a son who was as furry as the Yeti himself. The yeti started keeping the passage to the cave open. Tshomo could sit in the sun with her baby but she missed her life in the village. She could not run away because she know that yeti would find her no matter where she went.

One day, Tshomo took a deer skin and made herself a pair of boots. The yeti saw her in her boots and signaled her to make one for him. She took some skin and stitched the skin to his legs. He yelled in pain but she said that was the only way to make the boot.

When the stitching was done, she dashed out of the cave, down to the valley. The yeti chased after her, making angry noise but could not catch her because his legs started bleeding. Racing downhill, she reached her village before the sunset. People saw her and were astonished to see her alive. She quickly narrated her story. Her parents and the village elders were enraged to learn about the Yeti and her abduction. They decided to get rid of the yeti. They burned the torches and waited for the yeti to come. After a long wait, they saw him limping and dragging his feet and making anguished cries towards the village. The men circled him and threw the burning torches. He made blood-curdling cries which could be heard for miles. Slowly the flames engulfed him burning him to ashes.

Tshomo went to live with her parents but her health deteriorated rapidly due to the trauma she went through during her stay with the yeti. She died shortly afterward.

No one knew what actually happened to the baby. Some said that the baby meandered in the mountains and the cow herders had to look for pasture in the other places out of fear. The others said that the baby died soon after the incident. Well no one really knew the truth about the baby.