ORANG PENDEK EXPEDITION 2016: The Tall One And Other Strange Tales From The Recent Past

Before being asked to leave the plantation by park rangers, over half a dozen villagers came to visit us to discuss their encounters with Orang Pendek or Orang Itam as they called them. Most of the reports were very recent which was excellent news, however I was also related two very fascinating stories that took place over forty years ago.

The first event occurred on the plantation around 1973/74 when large 20-inch footprints were discovered. A few days later a massive and hairy hominoid was seen walking through a grove of cinnamon trees by one of the locals. Based on the height of the trees the eyewitness estimated the creature to be a staggering 13 feet in height or more. Unfortunately it was never seen again and the locals dubbed it Orang Tinggi, or the tall person. In other parts of Sumatra these elusive giants are sometimes referred to as Orang Gadang. Interestingly its size and description corresponds very closely to the Orang Dalam/Mawas of southern Malaysia and it's highly likely that these creatures are of the same, albeit extinct,species.

The other story occurred a few years later in the same region but the exact location could not be remembered. Apparently during the height of the rainy season an Orang Pendek lost its footing and fell into a raging river and was swept downstream. Its body was then deposited in a large irrigation ditch or small canal near a plantation and the remains were viewed by dozens of locals for a period of several days.The decomposing corpse was then suddenly removed and its fate is unknown to this day. The most probable scenario is that it was buried, or does some individual in the Kerinci Valley posses its skeletal remains?