Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary

Thanks for taking my call. I spent eleven years working with conservation organizations in the Eastern Himalayas, and there is something I need people to understand about what is happening in Bhutan. Not what might be happening. What is officially, legally, governmentally happening. In 2003, the Royal Government of Bhutan established the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in the far eastern region of the country. Seven hundred forty square kilometers of protected land. That is bigger than Singapore. The sanctuary protects red pandas, snow leopards, the endangered Himalayan black bear. Thirty-five species of wild rhododendron. Real animals. Real plants. All documented. But here is the thing. The primary stated purpose of this sanctuary, the reason the Bhutanese government created it, was to protect the habitat of the migoi. That is their word for what we call the yeti. The abominable snowman. A creature whose existence has never been scientifically confirmed. And the government of Bhutan said, we are setting aside this land for it anyway.

I first heard about this in 2005 when the MacArthur Foundation awarded seven hundred thousand dollars to the World Wildlife Fund's Bhutan program specifically to help manage this sanctuary. I was working with WWF Nepal at the time, and when I saw that grant announcement, I thought someone had made a mistake. But I pulled the documentation. It was real. You have to understand what makes this so extraordinary. Bhutan is not a wealthy country. When this sanctuary was created, the average annual income was around seven hundred thirty dollars per person. Literacy rates were below fifty percent. Timber is one of their main exports. And they looked at this land, this valuable forested land in Trashigang District, and they said no. This belongs to the migoi. The sanctuary has three ranges. Merak Range, Sakteng Range, Joenkhar Range. I have walked through parts of it. The forests are temperate, eastern blue pine and rhododendron. It is part of what ecologists call the Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests ecoregion. And somewhere in those forests, according to the Bhutanese government, the migoi roams free.

Now, before you dismiss this as superstition or folklore, let me tell you about the Brokpa. About six thousand of them live within the sanctuary boundaries in villages called Merak and Sakteng. They are semi-nomadic yak herders who follow Tibetan Buddhism but also maintain ancient animist beliefs. Their ancestors came from Tshona in southern Tibet centuries ago. They have their own dialect, their own customs. They still practice polyandry. To the Brokpa, the migoi is not a myth. It is not a campfire story. It is a Nydag Shidag, a guardian spirit entrusted by their deity Penden Lhamo with protecting sacred places. The migoi watches over religious artifacts, statues, scriptures. When I asked one elder about whether he believed the migoi existed, he looked at me like I had asked whether mountains existed. The questions they ask are not if, but when and where you might encounter one. And here is the thing. Here is what I keep coming back to. The Bhutanese government listened to these people. They did not say your beliefs are backward, your traditions are obstacles to development. They said these beliefs matter. This creature matters to you. So it matters to us.