MYSTERY FILM :: Arnošt Vašíček :: BIGFOOT IN MALAYSIA

In 1995, a panic broke out in Johor in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Several men travelling through the thick jungle near Tanjung Piai spotted a huge unknown creature. Its body was covered in long black fur, it had broad shoulders, an ovoid head with a low forehead, a flat nose, and large jaws with strong teeth. The monster looked like a large orangutan, but its features and way of walking were human-like.

   Shortly after this, the group was startled by another discovery. They found footprints that were almost half a metre in length by the river. The amount and various directions of the footprints indicated that the creature had probably settled in this territory and has a hideout somewhere nearby.

    The news spread like wildfire, unleashing an avalanche of fear. The natives living in small settlements in the jungle kept constant watch. Warriors guarded the houses with spears in hand. Women lit branches and pounded metal containers to scare off the dreaded intruder. A police squad searched in vain at the site with the greatest number of tracks. This caused tensions to rise even more. Members of primitive ethnic groups inhabiting the area became convinced that it was not a creature made of flesh and bones, but the 'spirit of the forest' itself. Incidentally, one of the indigenous names for this mysterious creature is 'hantu jerang gigi', which can be translated as 'toothy ghost'. To gain his favour, they began to perform ritual dances and the shamans diligently exorcised evil forces.    

    The investigator issued an official report in which he confirmed the discovery of fresh, 48-cm long tracks of a completely unknown animal. He also expressed the opinion that despite their staggering number, the tracks were only made by a single specimen.

    The event in Johor was followed by dozens of similar sightings elsewhere on the Malay Peninsula. The local natives call this wild man Mawas. They say they have known him since ancient times. The first reliable written testimony dates back to 1851.

    Although encounters with the Mawas are very rare, they are still numerous enough to rule out that they are mere fables. The Mawas resides in uninhabited, heavily forested mountainous regions and only comes down to villages when hunger forces it to do so. It is most often observed near fields and orchards.

    In 1966, residents of kampongs (villages) in Segamat, about 160 km southeast of Kuala Lumpur, observed a whole group of these strange creatures in the jungle. Two of them were almost two and a half metres tall, while the rest were considerably smaller. That was around the same time when settlers' crops began disappearing. Someone was entering the vegetable field at night, pulling the tubers out of the ground and eating them. The footprints found in the soggy soil of the ravaged field were deeper and far larger than human footprints. It was clear at first glance that they were not made by a human.

 In kampong Bangis, the footsteps of these 'thieves' were carefully measured. The foot was 45 centimetres long and 15 cm wide, and it dug 12.5 cm into the soil. This creature had to be massive and very heavy.

    Then the mysterious creature broke into a wooden hut in the paddy field and destroyed most of it. The Malaysian Army declared a state of alert. The soldiers were ordered to search around the affected kampongs and try to capture the mysterious creature. Their search seemed futile until the 'black giant' approached the soldiers himself. According to the Utusan Melayu newspaper, despite several men guarding the camp, the animal managed to reach the food tent. One group was returning from a patrol when it caught sight of the Mawas in the glow of the fire. Before the frightened soldiers could reach for their weapons, the creature disappeared into the darkness.

    They didn't manage to catch the mysterious monster, but its existence was confirmed by officials. The credibility of the testimonies prompted Tengka Mahkot, the son of the Sultan of Pahang, to organize a new expedition. A well-organized group searched in places where 'human-monkey hybrids' had been repeatedly observed by loggers from Pahang's forests. The creatures were only about 120 cm tall, and the females were lighter and had longer fur than the males. Casts of the footprints found were examined by the Department of Orang Asli Development. The experts here were at a loss; to calm the situation, they declared that they were probably the tracks of members of the very shy, pygmy Batek people.

        A Malaysian radio station broadcast an interview with four witnesses to another unusual event. Police corporal Wajib, two workers and a ten-year-old Chinese girl encountered another group of these strange creatures on the edge of the Trolak Forest Reserve in Perak. The large, almost 2.5-m tall figure was covered in thick, matted fur all over its body. It had large fangs on its pronounced slightly protruding jaws, which were visible even when the creature's mouth was closed. Both the males and females had beards on their faces. They used strange barking sounds to communicate. After they scared a child from a village, Wajib found them in a field digging up cassava tubers. One day later, these monkey people were seen swimming in the river. One Tamil worker even experienced an unusual courtship. He was cutting the trunk of a rubber tree when a female monkey quietly approached him from behind and hugged him. He smelled an awful odour. Startled, he broke free from her grip and ran away. Neither the female nor her companions pursued him.

  The last report came in 2000 from Negeri Sembilan, and this is the reason why I decided to venture into the deep forests of this province.

 IN SEARCH OF MONSTERS

 Do ominous creatures lurk in the dark waters of the Great Lakes? Are mysterious humanoid beings hidden in the world's remote corners?

 To explore these questions, author and researcher Arnošt Vašíček embarked on expeditions across numerous countries. He was the first to film the sachama, a massive serpentine creature from the Amazon, confirming indigenous reports dating back over a thousand years. In Mali, he documented the Andambulu humanoids among the Dogon tribe. In Malaysia, he encountered the water dragon of Lake Chini, and in Sri Lanka, he searched for Niettavo, a smaller version of Bigfoot, with the Veda tribe.

 Vašíček's book, *In Search of Monsters*, compiles the most fascinating cases from his quest to uncover unknown creatures. It features a unique photograph of 20 cm tall dwarfs from Indonesia, a mummy of an unidentified creature from Peru, and the head and torso of a water monster. These surprising discoveries and eyewitness accounts suggest that even as we enter the third millennium, our planet may still harbor unknown beings reminiscent of prehistoric monsters.