Pangboche Yeti Hand Heist

While the yeti, or Meh-te as it is called locally, has been an old ingredient of local folklore, it was in the 1950s that the yeti entered western imagination. And one of the artifacts that was much sought after by yeti hunters was the purported yeti hand at Pangboche monastery. An expedition funded by American oil man Tom Slick and headed by Peter Byrne was able to acquire a single finger bone for about NPR 10,000 or USD 160 and a replacement human bone. Tests run at Oxford were inconclusive and the piece was soon forgotten. That was in 1959. The hand minus the finger bone lay there in Pangboche catering to curious eyes and helping the monks receive a small donation. That run came to an end in 1991 when the Pangboche hand received worldwide coverage through an NBC documentary. Soon after the hand was stolen. Local gossip relates how the villagers had a rough idea of who the thief could be, but couldn't get themselves to ask the person to open his rucksack. That was because they didn't want to commit a sin by offending the person, if he were innocent!! The piece smuggled by Byrne resurfaced in 2011 when DNA tests showed the hand to be, only too human. Another interesting thing about this whole hidden hand episode is the return of the hand. Mike Allsop, a Kiwi mountaineer, asked the guys who made costumes for Lord of The Rings to make a replica of the lost hand and gave it to Lama Geshe of Pangboche Monastery. Thus, while the real hand sits it out in the luxuries of a collector's house, it is the replica along with a yeti scalp that brings in a steady income for the small monastery of Pangboche.