By Pratibha Tuladhar, dpa
Eds: Anniversary of first successful Everest climb is Wednesday, infographic 19179 =
Kathmandu (dpa) - One of Tashi Tenzing Sherpa's favourite memories of his grandfather is, fittingly, following him up a mountain.
“I was 12 when I tagged along on a trek in Kanchanjunga in Sikkim, where he was guiding a group of American tourists,” Tashi, now nearly 50, says of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, one of the first two men to successfully climb Everest.
“We had to walk up the jungle to the alpine region and herds of yaks were running down the hill and we were petrified!” Tashi raised a hand as if to wave them off.
“Grandfather ran to the top of the hill and said something to the yaks, and they stopped!
“I thought that was cool!” he said of Tenzing's skills learned as a boy yak-herder in his Nepali hometown of Khumbu.
“At 5 feet 10 inches (1.77 metres), my grandfather stood out,” said Tashi, who is also taller than most Sherpas. His mother, Pem Pem, was Tenzing Norgay’s eldest child, his English tutor and traveling partner.
Sherpas migrated to Nepal from Tibet 800 years ago, and form the majority of the country's Himalayan population.
Some moved on to Darjeeling, India in search of work, which is how 12-year-old Tenzing arrived in his new home.
British-run expeditions to attempt to climb Everest were run out of the northern Indian city, and Tenzing got his first job with them aged 18, but it wasn't easy, Tashi explained.
“You had to be recommended by a friend who was working for the British in Darjeeling, which Tenzing didn’t have,” Tashi said, pointing at a faded photograph of his grandfather standing with other Sherpas outside the Planters Club in Darjeeling in 1935.
Tenzing was passed over twice by English climbers Eric Shipton and Bill Tinman, but "he persisted with Eric who had seen him standing there to put him in the team.”
“He had carried stones to build a chapel in Darjeeling, so he knew he could take hard work.
“Eric said, 'We’ll take one more and that’s you' - and Tenzing was hired,” Tashi said. “I think it was his persistence and his smile that won.”
Shipton wrote that he saw Tenzing as a "different" Sherpa, with a competitive desire to impress and, he suspected, four lungs.
Shipton took Tenzing on his first attempt at Mount Everest, from the northern face in China. But it would be many more years before success from its southern face in Nepal in 1953.
“Learning the ropes of mountaineering was different, but Tenzing was a fast learner,” said Tashi, who co-authored a book with his wife called Tenzing Norgay and the Sherpas of Everest.
In 1938, Tenzing was decorated with the Tiger of the Snow medal for his work with British expeditions.
Sherpa renown grew when Tenzing paired with Edmund Hillary, who selected him for the successful 1953 attempt on Everest after Tenzing saved his life during an earlier expedition.
“The mountain people worship the mountains and when they heard Norgay climbed Everest the Nepalis thought he was like a god. They wrote songs and poems about him.”
Tenzing Norgay was awarded the Nepal Tara by King Tribhuvan, the highest civilian award at that time. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II gave him the George Medal when Edmund Hillary was knighted.
“Knighthood didn’t matter to him because he wasn’t an educated man,” Tashi explained, and spoke of his grandfather's "culture shock" when the queen placed a drawn sword on his climbing mate's shoulder.
“He didn’t expect there to be so much drama about climbing Everest,” the grandson said.
Tashi himself has summitted Everest three times.
“Next year, I will attempt my fourth climb,” he points at a collage poster of him, his grandfather and his uncle - who also reached the summit. “I will turn 50 and my grandfather would have been 100, had he been alive.”
Aside from professional mountaineering, Tashi also gives motivational talks.
“When people invite me to do these talks, I tell them a simple story - the story of my family.
“My grandfather came from nowhere to become a world famous man, but no one knows how hard life was for him, or my own dream of climbing Everest was for me.”
The part-time photographer, who worked with the Happy Feet penguin documentary team in Antarctica, has also set up free schools in Nuwakot, one of the poorest districts in Nepal.
Tashi’s next door neighbor in Kathmandu is Hillary's granddaughter Amelia Rose Hillary, who is following in Sir Edmund's footsteps with her own philanthropic work in Nepal.
“The Everest region has benefited a lot from mountain tourism, so Amelia and I are focusing on other parts of the country that need more attention.”
When Tashi was growing up, it never occurred to him that his grandfather was a star.
“We don’t have a culture of asking questions of elders, but as children, we used to love watching him move around the house.
“He was a handsome, tall man, very humble, very loving and you could see by his face he had a confident, positive energy. And he never abandoned his old friends,” Tashi recalled.
“Tenzing was a man born in the shadows of Everest and destined to climb Chomolungma (the Tibetan name for the mountain).”
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