“That was not a ghost,” said YouTube user Cut Loucia in the comments section of a YouTube video that has garnered millions of views globally.

In the clip, a group of trail motorbikers appeared shocked by the appearance of a small human-like creature that suddenly emerged from the woods. The bald, topless figure stopped briefly before running off. Some of the riders tried to chase it, but it ran back into the woods and disappeared.

“It’s a Mante, an ancient tribe thought to have been extinct,” Cut Loucia said in response to online users who suggested that the figure was a tuyul (mischievous childlike ghost).

The Mante tribe, an Old Malayan dwarf tribe, was widely considered to be a myth. “I only believed it after watching this.”

The clip was quick to trigger an online frenzy. Posted by user Fredography on March 22, it had been viewed more than 9.3 million times as of Sunday.

The Mante tribe was said to have lived only in forests in the Aceh hinterland where the footage was said to be taken.

Anthropologist Fikarwin Zuska of North Sumatra University in Medan, however, said there had been no scientific research capable of proving the existence of the Mante tribe.

“The tribe so far can only be found in Aceh’s or Gayo’s folklore,” Fikarwin said on Friday. He said the Mante people were described as dwarfs with heels on the front of their feet allowing them to run quickly through the woods.

“The video was a recent reconstruction to contest the results of scientific research about the first people in Aceh, whose fossils were found in Loyang Mandale, Central Aceh, several years ago,” he said, adding that the first inhabitants of Aceh were estimated to have been in existence 4,500 years ago.

Fikarwin, who did not believe the Mante people were real as they had never been physically found, said the story on the existence of the Mante tribe was first made public in an article in a national newspaper in 1987. The writer reportedly met the tribe in the Lokop hinterland in East Aceh regency.

According to Fikarwin, Aceh is home to nine tribes, namely the Alas, Befayan, Boang, Gayo, Kelued, Pakpak, Sigulai, Taluak and Tamiang tribes.

Other speculation suggested the Mante people were Orang Pendek, which literally means “short man” but refers to cryptids in remote and mountainous forests of Sumatra. Researchers have also reported numerous sightings of Orang Pendek since the 1920s.

However, Fikarwin has shrugged off the speculation, saying it could have been a human who happened to be smaller in stature for various reasons, such as hunting or meditating.

Spokesperson of Mount Leuser National Park (TNGL), Joko Iswanto, said he believed the footage was not shot in Aceh’s protected forest area.

“No motorcycle community has been reported to conduct activities here because such a thing is forbidden,” he said.

“We have never heard about the Mante tribe in the park, let alone sighted them,” Joko added.

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