The migoi of Sakteng

A wildlife sanctuary that officially lists the yeti among its protected species

Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary occupies the far east of Bhutan, across Trashigang and Samdrup Jongkhar, up against the Indian border. It covers 742 square kilometres, it was established on 17 April 2003, and it is the only reserve on Earth created specifically to protect the habitat of the yeti.

In Bhutan he is the migoi, the strong man, and he is not a marketing slogan bolted onto a park. Bhutanese conservation treats the cultural and spiritual significance of a landscape as part of what is being protected, in the same way New Zealand law recognises a taniwha in a river. The migoi belongs to this country in local tradition, so the country was protected.

The tradition describes him as large, covered in hair, upright, and appallingly smelly, with the ability to turn invisible, which is an elegant answer to the question of why nobody ever produces one.

Now take the conservation seriously, because a protected area is a protected area whatever the reasoning. Sakteng is temperate forest of eastern blue pine and rhododendron, and it is called the paradise of rhododendrons for good reason: around thirty five of the forty six rhododendron species recorded in Bhutan grow inside it. Bhutan has put it forward for UNESCO World Heritage consideration.

It is also home to the Brokpa, a semi-nomadic yak-herding people whose ancestors came from Tshona in southern Tibet and who now number over six thousand. They are recognisable at a glance by the shamo, a black wool hat with dangling legs that is usually described as looking like a spider, worn to shed rain.

Access is by permit through a Bhutanese operator, as everything in the country is. The walk in from Trashigang through Merak and Sakteng is one of the more remote treks in the Himalaya. Go for the Brokpa, the rhododendrons and the yaks, and let the migoi be the reason the ground still exists.