This yakkha or Yeti/Bigfoot (seen at left) was recently photographed in the wilds of Siberia. Yakkhas (Sanskrit, yakshasa or rakshasa) are "curiously ambivalent creatures" in Buddhism, according to scholar Maurice Walshe, for reasons explained in the Atanatiya discourse (DN 32.2). 
The most infamous yakkha in Buddhist texts is Alavaka (SN 10.12), who threatened then questioned the Buddha and engaged in "cannibalism," indicating his own at least partial humanity. Generally regarded as fierce ogres, demons, or abominable wild-dwelling men, they are capable of exercising extreme cruelty, apparently supernatural powers, mastering human language, and even of being good (and partially enlightened).
In the most famous case, one of the Buddha's principal patrons, the Stream-Winner King Bimbisara, reports that he has been reborn as Janavasabha, a yakkha ruler under the Great King of the North Vessavana (DN 32). "Later tradition," according to Walshe, "insists more and more on the bad side of the yakkhas, who come to be regarded as orgres or demons pure and simple -- with the female (yakshi) of the species being more deadly than the male."
The message here is twofold. One, Buddhism is not talking fairy tales when it lists yakkhas and other nonhuman and/or semi-human beings living on Earth. Clearly pre-Buddhist (found in Hindu and Jain 
lore), they were interpreted according to the times. Two, yakkhas are very much a type or hybrid species of human interacting in the world. Alavaka was clearly human, with wives and servants, as is Vlad Putin. Evil perhaps, megalomaniacal certainly, along the lines of nagas like Cheney and Bush, these beings are important to recognize for their widespread influence on human affairs. So why is Putin engaged in these ridiculous stunts? The AP explains:
lore), they were interpreted according to the times. Two, yakkhas are very much a type or hybrid species of human interacting in the world. Alavaka was clearly human, with wives and servants, as is Vlad Putin. Evil perhaps, megalomaniacal certainly, along the lines of nagas like Cheney and Bush, these beings are important to recognize for their widespread influence on human affairs. So why is Putin engaged in these ridiculous stunts? The AP explains:
(AP: K-G-Beefcake) While Americans may think of the Marlboro man, for Russians the more powerful association is the warrior heroes of Russian fairy tales who rode horseback and defended Russia from foreign invaders. "They are trying to play on Russian folk traditions," said Yevgenia Albats, editor of the political magazine New Times. "The message is: I am the master of the Russian universe," she said. "I go to our roots, to nature, the land that is not occupied by anyone. I am the one and only warrior in these lands."
- Questions of Alavaka (verses)
PHOTOS: 1. Yakkha Vlad Putin in tree in southern Siberia's Tuva region, 8/3/09 (Reuters/RIA Novosti/Pool/Alexei Druzhinin. 2. Yakkha Alavaka abusing the Buddha in Alavi, India (artist's rendition). 3. Bhikkhu Bodhi delivering talk on the deep meaning of the Alavaka Sutta in upstate New York's Chaung Yen Monastery. 4&6. Rising to positions of power among men, yakkhas like Vlad Putin (L) are also capable of civility, seen here (L) as he takes lunch with a local villager outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on 8/3/09, and engaged in activities (like bare chested horseback riding as to appear like a centaur, clearly aimed at reinforcing his tough-guy image that plays so well in Russia (AFP/POOL/Alexey Druzhinin). 5. Brain of Psychopaths video link (Reuters).
