Ngoi rung - "ice man"

In search of the secrets of the "Ngoi rung," known as the "ice man," scientists have been trying to unravel the mystery of its existence for years. Its history dates back 36 years, when Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans described Homo pongoides based on a discovery in a block of ice that could revolutionize primatology. Despite the loss of the holotype and the controversy surrounding its research, interest in the "forest man" of Vietnam continues unabated. Expeditions led by Vietnamese and international researchers continue to yield new information that may shed light on this enigmatic creature.

Thirty-six years ago , Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans first published his description of Homo pongoides , based on the observation of a specimen found in a block of ice, a very small specimen that could have been a monumental discovery in the field of primatology. The loss of the holotype, coupled with the ambiguous behavior of Dr. Frank D. Hansen (who traveled the country with the find for three years), left Heuvelmans with a bitter sense of defeat. His description, it was believed, contained too many uncertainties about the "Minnesota Iceman" for its existence to be taken for granted.However, Dr. Helmut Loofs-Wissowa of the Australian National University (an old friend of Heuvelmans) shared Heuvelmans's opinion and initially assumed the specimen came from Vietnam. There are reports, including from journalist Wilfred Burchett (who traveled through Vietnam on the Ho Chi Minh Railway). While digging through sources, Loofs-Wissowa discovered that in 1974, the Vietnamese Party Secretariat had a group of scientists, led by the renowned ecologist Dr. Vo Quy, dressed in uniforms and searching the recently liberated areas of the south for a creature called "Ngoi rung," whose name meant "forest man" (the term also refers to the "Utah Orang," which we know existed in Vietnam 10,000 years ago). This expedition, however, found nothing but archaeological artifacts and an elephant for a local circus.

A further 10 years of searching in the Central Highlands also yielded little. Tran Hong Viet, now a professor at Hanoi University of Education, found a suspicious footprint, which he then photographed and cast, but his interest was such that he did not report or speak about it until the 1985 summary conference.

However, sightings in the highlands continued, including one reported in 1990 by Professor Dao Van Tien, the oldest and most respected Vietnamese zoologist. North Vietnamese veterans compared their American adversaries to monkeys, large or small. Professor Quy was interviewed by a popular magazine in 1995 after receiving a letter from a former Vietnamese soldier who had seen the monkey's body loaded onto a helicopter at a hilltop airfield in the 1960s. This rekindled interest in Hansen's specimen.Dr. Loofs-Wissowa had served as a legionnaire in Vietnam, having previously been an archaeologist. When the first non-communist archaeologists returned to Vietnam in 1978, he introduced Heuvelmans to the work of his colleagues. In November 1995, Loofs-Wissowa returned to meet Vietnamese scientists in Hanoi on the day of a conference on the "Ngoi rung," or rather, the possibility of its existence. The Vietnamese scientific community was divided: some could not believe in the creature they had not studied; others were less skeptical and argued for its existence in the unaffected and relatively depopulated highlands. Estimates suggest the creature's height could range from 1 to 1.8 meters (or more), and its fur could be black or reddish-brown. The discovery of another new mammal species in Vietnam will undoubtedly fuel debate.

In the United States, Dr. Hansen never returned the animal's body. He considers "John Dee's Oldest Tractor" to be of greater value. However, in the central highlands of Vietnam, a few locals still maintain that "Ngoi Rung" is a real animal. It is not a demon or a spirit. Its discovery is only a matter of time.