The barmanou (or barmanu) is said to be a bipedal primate living in the mountainous region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sightings have been reported by shepherds living in the mountains. The zoologist Dr. Jordi Magraner, a Spaniard living in France, researched the barmanu extensively. He was murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
The term Barmanu is used in several languages including Khowar, Shina, Hindko and Kashmiri and is derived from the Sanskrit term Ban-Manus, meaning Man of the Forest.
The proposed range of the Barmanu is in the Hindukush and Karakoram ranges, between the Pamirs and the Himalaya. Thus this puts its range in region between the ranges of two more famous cryptids, the Almas of Central Asia and the Yeti of the Himalayas.
The Barmanu is supposed to possess both human and apelike characteristics and is said to abduct women and attempt mating with them. It is also reported to wear animal skins upon its back and head. The Barmanu appears in the folklore of the Northern Regions of Pakistan and depending on where the stories come from it tends to be either described as an ape or a wild man. The term might be a general name for several different types of hominid as the tales referring to wild men may be those of the Almas which is always described as a wild human whereas those describing a large bipedal ape may be referring to the Yeti