Nguoi Rung, which translates into Forest People, is a reported human like ape, similar to Bigfoot, which lives in the dense jungles of Vietnam. Sightings of these creatures vary in there descriptions, from large to small, with body hair from gray to brown or black, and sometimes reddish. Spotted in groups and alone, they are reported to walk upright in a bipedal fashion. The creature is well known by the locals of an area known as three borders, an area where Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos converge. So frequent where the sightings in this area that in 1974, during the height of the war, General Hoang Minh Thao, commander of northern forces in the Central Highlands, asked for a scientific survey of the region north of Kontum for what the natives called Nquoi Rung. The scientists who where part of the expedition included Professors Vo Quy and Le Vu Khoi from Hanoi University and Professor Hoang Xuan Chinh from the Institute of Archaeology in Hanoi.

The expedition failed to locate a Nguoi Rung, however, they returned with the cast of a footprint found by Professor Vo Quy as well as two elephants captured for the local circuses. The cast impression brought back by Professor Quy was analyzed and studied by several Vietnamese scientists, it was described as wider than a human footprint and too big to have been an apes.

In 1982, Professor Tran Hong Viet, of the Pedagogic University of Hanoi, discovered and made a cast of a strange footprint that looked human but was mush wider, similar to the first cast, and the toes where described as being much longer than the toes of a modern humans. The print was found on the slopes of Chu Mo Ray, Mom Ray Mountian, near the Cambodian border. Professor Viet was able to return to his research recently through Nippon Television, which aired a show on the Nguoi Rung, Wildman of the Forest, which aired in March of 1996.

Anthropologist Dang Nghiem Van, director of Hanoi’s Institute for Religious Studies, has collected many stories of Nguoi Rung from Northern Vietnam to the central highlands. These stories include myths of a small but powerful being knowing the use of fire and often eating forest mollusks. According to the studies of Van, at night the Nguoi Rung venture to places where people have made fires, they sit beside man but do not speak, or if they do speak, speak unintelligibly. Professor Van’s detailed notes have yet to be published.

Cryptozoologist Bernard Henvelmans suggested that, at least some forms of Nguoi Rung, may be a remnant population of an early human species, possibly a specimen of Homo pongoides, a name that Bernard Henvelman gave to a hominid he once examined, along side Ivan T. Sanderson, which was encased in a block of ice. This Neanderthal like hominid later became known as the Minnesota Iceman, a specimen which disappeared with out a trace and has been surrounded in controversy and mystery ever since.

The Evidence
Outside of eye witness reports and a few footprint casts there is little evidence to confirm the existence of Nguoi Rung.

The Sightings
During the Vietnam War, a 6 man patrol from the 101st Airborne Division’s LRRPs was set up in a protective wedge wheel position, heads facing outward, feet pointed toward the center. This behind the lines patrol had taken the team into a remote and difficult stretch of mountainous jungle in the Central Highlands. During there guard the bushes and underbrush some 15 feet uphill began to shake violently.

Prepared for a VC solider, the group was not ready for the face that would appear, an oblong head framed a hair covered face, dark, deep set eyes lay beneath a prominent brow, and they did nothing to compliment the creature’s heavy jowls and angry mouth. As it stepped into a clearing the group noticed the creature had matted reddish brown hair, it stood roughly 5 feet tall, had broad shoulders, long thick muscular arms, and a heavy torso.

The Stats – (Where applicable)

• Classification: Hominid
• Size: Roughly 4 – 6 Feet
• Weight: Unknown
• Diet: Unknown
• Location: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
• Movement: Bipedal Walking
• Environment: Dense Forests