Barmanou
Humanoid cryptid from northern Pakistan and Afghanistan
title: "Barmanou" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["hominid-cryptids", "culture-of-pakistan", "pakistani-folklore", "pakistani-legendary-creatures", "culture-of-afghanistan"] description: "Humanoid cryptid from northern Pakistan and Afghanistan" topic_path: "geography/pakistan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barmanou" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Humanoid cryptid from northern Pakistan and Afghanistan ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox mythical creature"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Barbandu |
| Grouping | Cryptid |
| Sub_Grouping | Hominid |
| AKA | Barmanu, Baddmanus, Big Hairy One (Translation) |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Region | Chitral, Gilgit and North Western Areas of Pakistan |
| Details | Found in the mountains |
| Similar_entities | Bigfoot, Skunk Ape, Yeren, Yowie, Mande Barung, Orang Pendek, Almas, Yeti |
| :: |
|name = Barbandu |image = |caption = |Grouping = Cryptid |Sub_Grouping = Hominid |AKA = Barmanu, Baddmanus, Big Hairy One (Translation) |Country = Pakistan |Region = Chitral, Gilgit and North Western Areas of Pakistan |Details = Found in the mountains |Similar_entities=Bigfoot, Skunk Ape, Yeren, Yowie, Mande Barung, Orang Pendek, Almas, Yeti |First_Attested =
The Barmanou (or Barmanu or Baddmanus) is allegedly a bipedal humanoid primate cryptid that inhabits the mountainous region of northern Pakistan. Shepherds living in the mountains have reported sightings.
The Barmanou is the Pakistani equivalent of the Bigfoot. The term Barmanou originates in Khowar, but is now used in several Pakistani languages including Urdu, Shina, Pashto and Kashmiri. In addition to the name Barmanou, there are a few local variant names.
The proposed range of the Barmanou covers the Chitral and Karakoram Ranges, between the Pamirs and the Himalayas. This places the Barmanou between the ranges of two more famous cryptids, the Almas of Central Asia and the Yeti of the Himalayas.
The Barmanou allegedly possesses both human and apelike characteristics, and has a reputation for abducting women and attempting to mate with them. It is also reported to wear animal skins upon its back and head. The Barmanou appears in the folklore of the Northern Regions of Pakistan, and depending on where the stories come from, it is described as an ape or a wild man.
The first search in Pakistan for a Bipedal Humanoid man was carried out by a Spanish zoologist living in France, Jordi Magraner, from 1987 to 1990. He wrote a paper titled Les Hominidés reliques d'Asie Centrale, | last1 = Magraner | first1 = Jordi | title = Notes sur les hominidés reliques d'Asie centrale: district de Chitral, NWFP, Pakistan | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YOdvQwAACAAJ | language = fr | publisher = J. Magraner | date = 1992 | access-date = 8 March 2014 on the Pakistani cryptid – the wild man.
He later researched the Barmanou extensively in the 1990s, but was murdered in Afghanistan in 2002. Loren Coleman wrote that he "collected more than fifty firsthand sighting accounts, and all eyewitnesses recognized the reconstruction of Heuvelman's homo pongoides ["apelike man"—i.e., a living Neanderthal.]. They picked out homo pongoides as their match to Barmanu from Magraner's ID kit of drawings of apes, fossil men, aboriginals, monkeys, and the Minnesota Iceman."
In May 1994, during a search in Shishi Kuh valley, Chitral, the cryptologists Jordi Margraner, Anne Mallasseand, and another associate reported that once during a late evening they heard unusual guttural sounds, which only a primitive voice-box could have produced. No further progress could be made.
References
References
- ''Hazara Gazetteer 1883-84'', Lahore, 1884, Language' section, p.117
- (February 16, 2014). "In search of an elusive creature".
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