Sherpas of Solu-Khumbu region of north-eastern Nepal have a legendary prestige whenever words of Himalayas, Mt. Everest, expeditions, climbing and trekking come up. They migrated from Tibet into their present home at Solu-Khumbu region in the 16th century, crossing over the High Himalaya pass of Nagpa La. They came from the eastern parts of Tibet, from Kham, as the word Sherpa connotes "people from the east."
In subsequent centuries until Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1959, the route over Nagpa La and straight through the key Sherpa villages of Solu-Khumbu constituted a major ancient north-south trade axis that associated Tibet with India. From Tibet came salt, restorative herbs, yak wool and dried meat and in return flowed cherished rice from the plains and all things from pots and pans to medicines.
Trickle Up Poverty
Their Tibetan origin is undeniable, in their corporal Mongoloid stock, the Tibetan dialect they speak, as well their dress and customs. They belong to the Nyingmapa, or Red Hat order of Tibetan Buddhism, associated with the apostle of Tantric Buddhism Padma Sambhawa, whereas in Tibet proper predominate the Gelukpa, the Yellow Hat. Monasteries in Solu-Khumbu are many, worship and customary practices among habitancy well rooted and successful to this day.
Namche Bazaar is the administrative center for the whole Khumbu region, Salleri to the south is its counterpart for the Solu region, with both towns staging successful Saturday market, attended by Sherpa highlanders, Tibetan traders as well as peoples of other ethnic background from the Nepal Midlands, namely Limbus, Rais and Thamangs.
While trade continues to play a considerable element of the Sherpas enterprise, farming and herding were what facilitated that the Sherpas not only survived in their newly found homeland centuries ago but that they prospered. Potential to grow crops such wheat, buckwheat and barley constituted the essence of their survival. Potatoes, when introduced in the 19th century, enhanced their diet as did cultivation of vegetables, from beans to cauliflower and cabbage.
Although Sherpas subsisted on agriculture and animal husbandry, influx of mountaineering expeditions and subsequent introduction of tourists have made inherent for many Sherpas to gain riches never imagined. Climbing expeditions first hired Sherpas as porters. Having speedily proven themselves not only having exceptional Potential to carry loads of 80 to 100 lb for long distances day after day, but above all being able to preserve the carrying of large amounts of equipment and supplies up steep mountain slopes, in snows and over ice and crevasses up and up to elevations over 24,000 feet, they soon started to get hired as guides and sirdars, expedition leaders. As a corollary great number of Sherpas have reached the summit of just as many Himalayan peaks as their employers, and it is in fact the Sherpas who hold the records of most repeat ascents and fastest times on Mt. Everest and other peaks today.
But the Sherpa prosperity has not as a matter of fact touched all Sherpas and it has not come without suffering. Over the nearly 90 years of mountaineering in the Nepal Himalayas, hundreds of Sherpas have died on mountaineering expeditions to where nearly all extended Sherpa families have had a family member who has perished climbing and in mountaineering-related activities. Yet despite the dangers of mountaineering, lucrative firm of high altitude guiding and mountaineering remains much conception after skill among the Sherpas. Tourism, guiding, running lodges, restaurants or becoming expedition cooks, porters and camp hands remain much preferred firm ventures and jobs.
Although the Sherpas list for less than one percent of total habitancy of Nepal and per capita earn much higher revenue than an average Nepalese, and significantly contribute to the hard currency revenue for Nepal, Solu-Khumbu is not without poverty, struggling particular parent families and orphans. While education among the Sherpa children ever since Hilary built first schools in the region is possibly allinclusive on a better footing than in other parts of Nepal, most Sherpas wish for better education for their children above all, as more than a decade of Maoist insurrection and civil war in Nepal, which brought tourism to a trickle in Solu-Khumbu, taught them that they best be prepared to diversify and not put all their dependence only on mountaineering and tourism.
Sherpas of Solu-Khumbu
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