“… For what is
Everest without the eye that sees it? It is the hearts of men that make it big
or small.” Tenzing Norgay in Man of Everest
Sometime in 1971, a young lad aged around ten
years and his grandmother walked out of Das Studio, a premier photo gallery in Darjeeling. The boy clutched an envelope in his hand as
though his life depended on it. The duo then walked past Glenarys, Keventers, The
Mount Everest Hotel and continued down to Tonga Road. They stopped in front of a
modest looking house and were greeted by the shrill barking of a number of small
Lhasa Apsos. The door opened and my grandmother said “Tenzing, can you please
autograph this, my grandson is a great admirer of yours.” I gazed spellbound as
the great man signed his name with a flourish and then asked us in for tea. More than forty years later that postcard is
still with me today – a cherished possession!
The year 2014 marks the birth centenary of
Tenzing Norgay and in all likelihood will pass unnoticed.
It is generally believed that Tenzing was
born in Nepal
in a village called Thami, a stone’s throw away from the Sherpa capital, Namche
Bazaar. In fact, he was born in 1914 in Tibet on a grazing alp called Ghang
La, surrounded by emerald lakes and high peaks. Tenzing was the eleventh child
out of fourteen of his mother Kinzom. His father Mingma was a yak herdsman and
Tenzing spent his early years grazing yaks in the Kharta valley with the shadow
of Everest looming above him. Many years later in Darjeeling, Tenzing named his house “Ghang
La” after the alp where he was born. Sadly, his father Mingma lost all his yaks
in an epidemic and with no work to be had in Tibet,
the young Tenzing was sent to Nepal.
Around forty five miles west of the Kharta
valley, lies the high and glaciated pass of Nangpa La (18,750 ft) which was a
trade route between Tibet and the Khumbu in Nepal. This was the pass which
Tenzing crossed, when as a young boy he came to work for a sherpa family in the
Khumbu. However, Tenzing had set his
sights on being a climbing sherpa and realized that he needed to get away to Darjeeling – the base for
all expeditions. He also fell in love with Dawa Phuti who belonged to a wealthy
family in Thami. Dawa’s parents were
against the match and so the two of them accompanied by some other sherpa
friends eloped to Darjeeling
around 1932.
After the tragic disappearance of Mallory
and Irvine on
Everest in 1924, the British did not attempt the mountain for several years. In 1933 they returned to Darjeeling to select sherpas for the expedition
led by Hugh Ruttledge. Lacking experience, Tenzing climbed the steps to the
Planters Club to meet the selection committee. However, the “sahibs” dismissed him and he spent
the summer tending cows in Alubari, Darjeeling.
