Real-life Tarzan spent entire life in jungle and didn't know women existed

04 July 2023 , 15:01

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This picture taken on August 8, 2013 shows Ho Van Lang, 42, sitting smoking (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

A man who has lived in the jungle for his entire life had no idea women existed.

Ho Van Lang has lived deep in the jungle in the Tay Tra district of Vietnam's Quang Ngai province for 43 years with his dad.

The man's extraordinary tale began when he fled civilisation at the end of the Vietnam War in 1972 when a US bomb killed his mum and two siblings.

Lang, now believed to be 48, his brother Tri and his dad resettled and lived entirely off the wilderness, eating honey, fruit and forest creatures, building shelters and fending for themselves.

Alvaro Cerezo, a photographer who tracked the family down back in 2015, said: "They always escaped when they saw people from a distance."

Inside abandoned funeral home left as a time capsule from the day it was closed

Lang, now believed to be 48, his brother Tri and his dad resettled and lived entirely off the wilderness (AFP via Getty Images)

The family were adapting to a new life in a small Vietnamese village in 2015, but recently returned to their forest home with Cerezo.

When asked if he knew what a female was, Lang said his father had never explained them to him but he has since seen them in the village.

"More surprising still is that today, despite being able to distinguish between men and women, he still doesn’t know the essential difference between them," Cerezo added, according to at the time.

Handmade tools and loincloths made of tree bark that Ho Van Thanh, 82, and his son Ho Van Lang , 42, used while living in the jungle (AFP via Getty Images)

"I can confirm that Lang has never had the minimum sexual desire and his reproductive instinct has never shown its head in any of its many facets."

His brother described him as a "baby in a man’s body… Lang doesn’t understand many basic social concepts. Lang has spent his whole life in the jungle.

"If I asked Lang to beat someone, he would do it severely. He doesn’t know the difference between good and bad. Lang is just a child. He doesn’t know anything.

The family settled in a village before returning to their jungle home (AFP via Getty Images)

"Most people know what is good or bad in life, but my brother doesn’t".

Lang initially struggled to adjust to village culture but Cerezo said he’s now "happily adapting to his new life".

"Lang was probably the most adorable human I have ever met in my life, he just doesn’t know what is good or bad," he said.

Nina Lloyd