Wednesday, 9 October 2019

Shurale, a type of Russian Yeti ,myth or reality?



Shurale,myth or reality ?
In November 2016 this appeared:
Dashcam footage of a night-time drive across a snowy Russian forest road reveals a strange creature lurking in the distance. The eerie clip recorded a group of friends travelling through the Republic of Bashkortostan near the Urals when the mysterious beast popped out. The friends in the car are left shocked by the creepy sighting of the beast which resembled an animal but moved upright like a human.In the video, the bizarre figure dashes across a snowed-in road prompting the car to pull immediately to a sudden stop. It is not the first time an alleged Yeti has been spotted in the area.There have been multiple sightings of a similar creature in recent years. Those that live in the mountainous region recall the local myth of Shurale, a devious tall hairy creature similar to the Yeti.

Shurala also spelled Shurale is a forest demon from Tatar mythology. According to legends, Shurale has long fingers, a horn on its forehead, and a woolly body.
Russia Today wrote that the KP daily reported multiple sightings of a Yeti in 2004 in the same part of Russia and that according to the locals , a tall hairy creature known as Shurale was responsible.It apparently tickled its victims to death. Mushroom pickers in the Southern Urals claim they often see Shurale or Yeti   in the forests. They say these Abominable Snowmen bend strong trees like twigs. It is believed Yetis possess hypnotic abilities and can instil in people a sense of uncontrolled panic and fear and compel them to immediately leave the  location.
Then I came across this: From the village of Ibragimova in the southern Urals from 1913. The locals captured and killed a wild man who was preying on the local domestic animals. When the police checked out the corpse they detailed a black haired body with no forehead, a pronounced brow and red eyes. The locals called him Shurale. (Studiengruppe Primates (www.sgr-primates.de/news.html)

There are many stories about Shurale that Tatar villagers tell their children .One such tale is that in one village the local residents noticed that one of their horses regularly disappeared every night and returned home  in the morning completely exhausted and lathered. They were bewildered by its mysterious disappearances. One day they decided to ask a local wise man  for help. The man recommended covering the saddle of the horse with tar and letting it go. The next morning the people of the village were awakened up by ear-splitting screams. They looked out of their windows and couldn’t believe their eyes: On top of the horse, glued to the saddle there was a scary-looking dark creature that appeared to be partly  human. The creature screamed at the top of its lungs. The village men caught the creature, a Shurale, and killed him.
It is so entrenched in folklore that there is a ballet performed about a Shurale who is outwitted by a local man.
There are also yeti reported in other areas in Russia:

So is there any truth in the folklore stories? Local people believe strongly and claim to have seen this type of Yeti creature .Until more evidence is found the jury remains out.

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