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Buru

gerhard1

Abominable Snowman
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Apr 24, 2016
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This cryptid was a large reptile that lived in the extreme northeast of India. It was thought to have become extinct only recently (the 1940's) and resembled a Komodo dragon, except for its blue color.

This is one cryptid that is seldom discussed.

Here is the wiki piece on it. The external link at the bottom of the page leads to another article on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buru_(cryptozoology)
 
This cryptid was a large reptile that lived in the extreme northeast of India. It was thought to have become extinct only recently (the 1940's) ...

The claim of recent extinction is not tenable ... The earliest reports by western visitors date to the years following WWII. Their informants stated the buru had gone extinct at some unspecified time in the past.

I've never seen any descriptions of the informants' testimonies that (a) claimed burus had disappeared soon before westerners were told about them or (b) offered any clues as to when such extinction may actually have occurred, with one minor exception ...

The Apa Tani informants are alleged to have claimed that burus lived in their valley when their ancestors arrived, but became extinct once their forebears drained the marshes that were there. However, I've never seen any reports of the Apa Tani testimonies that gave clues as to (a) when that group originally settled the valley and / or (b) when they finally drained the marshes.

So ... We're left with a cryptid known only from local folklore, with no reported observations since it was first mentioned to westerners (1940's) and no tangible evidence (e.g., skeletal remains). If something of the buru's alleged size had lived in that valley, there should be bones or other evidence.

I'm not dismissing burus out of hand, though ... I'm only illustrating why IMHO the buru story is too sketchy for me to take all that seriously until and unless someone manages to nail down some historical context and / or invests effort in seeking remains substantiating the folklore.
 
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some historical context and / or invests effort in seeking remains substantiating the folklore.
I wonder how many generations this kind of story can be passed though and still retain the distinguishing characteristics? If the buru was such a monitor lizard and it died out (say) 4-500 years ago, folk memories might persist and in marshy land, often acidic, bones would be scarce and buried.
 
I wonder how many generations this kind of story can be passed though and still retain the distinguishing characteristics?

IMHO it all depends on how loosely / strictly the given cultural group (in this case the Apa Tani) manage their oral histories.

If there's a strong tradition of designated storytellers / oral historians whom are drilled on a coherent / canonical body of lore, the reasonably retrospective horizon could conceivably extend back centuries.

If there's little or no such attention given to managing oral history, it's anybody's guess how long past - and how reliable - the hand-me-down lore may be.

If the buru was such a monitor lizard and it died out (say) 4-500 years ago, folk memories might persist and in marshy land, often acidic, bones would be scarce and buried.

I don't know what sort of timeframe applies in this case, because I've never seen any claims as to how long the Apa Tani have occupied that particular valley. For all I know there's a solid answer to this question, but I don't know that any of the crypto investigators ever made the effort to find out.

Yes, I realize any such remains might be few and require effort to locate. I never claimed it would be easy. My point was simply that tangible cryptids should leave tangible evidence, and I don't recall any of the accounts / reports mentioning efforts to locate past remains.

I've not paid a lot of attention to the buru story because I see it as subject to a double stigma. Both the historical details of Apa Tani settlement and some form of recent / contemporary evidence would be required to elevate the buru to the level of, say, Nessie or Bigfoot. These (and other ... ) more widely known cryptids are recognized (or at least purported ... ) based on substantially more than someone's handed-down account of an arbitrarily distant past.

These more popular cryptid stories enjoy the benefit of ongoing sightings to keep them alive. Given the obvious lack of such ongoing sightings for an extinct cryptid, the best one could hope for would be discovery of remains.
 
If there's a strong tradition of designated storytellers / oral historians whom are drilled on a coherent / canonical body of lore, the reasonably retrospective horizon could conceivably extend back centuries.
Poetry or songs would be ideal. They tend to change less than 'stories'.

Given the obvious lack of such ongoing sightings for an extinct cryptid, the best one could hope for would be discovery of remains.
I agree, that looks like the best possible outcome in this case, I was just speculating as to how one might 'date' historical sightings.
 
... I agree, that looks like the best possible outcome in this case, I was just speculating as to how one might 'date' historical sightings.

Some oral traditions are rich enough to cite items / elements that may be at least approximately dated. Examples include mention of specific individuals whose lives' timeframes might be specified or at least roughly inferred (e.g., via back-tracing the family tree), references to specific historical / social events of known dates, and / or references to natural events (including astronomical events) which might be retro-pinpointed as to date.

I have no idea how descriptively rich the Apa Tani tradition may be.

For reasons I can't really explain I find myself focused on the goal of determining when the valley's marshes were drained as an optimal first step.

One reason is that it was a large-scale shift in the valley environment which should have left considerable physical evidence which could be cross-correlated throughout the relevant area. It would also provide an excuse to survey where (specifically) within the valley those marshes were (and hence give clues as to where one would be most likely to find buru evidence).

Another compelling reason is that this draining event is claimed to mark the (at least approximate) timeframe when the burus disappeared / went extinct. This would aid in figuring out how far back (stratigraphically) one should have to go to hope to find buru remains (etc.), and it would provide something of a cross-check by helping to place the oral stories in a temporal context.

This initial survey effort wouldn't necessarily surface any buru remains, but it might well facilitate an eventual such outcome and minimize the risk of wasting time on randomly-chosen digs.

EDIT: Corrected typo in final paragraph.
 
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I always thought that the buru sounded more like a giant salamander, such as those found in China and Japan, than a lizard.
 
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