Table Of ContentIn Highest Nepal
NORMAN HARDIE
IN HIGHEST
NEPAL
Our Life Among the Sherpas
NORMAN HARDIE
GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD
Ruskin House
MUSEUM STREET LONDON
First published in 1957
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of
private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1911, no portion
may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiry should be made to the
publisher
Printed in Great Britain in 12Pt. Bembo type by C. Tinting
& co., Ltd.,
Liverpool, London and Prescot
PREFACE
On reading through the countless pages of worthy Himalayan literature published in recent years 1
accumulated a series of questions which remained unanswered. I was not concerned with the mountains
climbed, the oxygen statistics, or the activides of the sahibs; for my curiosity focused on the Sherpa people
who have contributed so much to the success of the greatest mountaineering expeditions. Exactly where do
the Sherpas live? What is the explanation of their adaptability to climbing at very high altitudes? How can
they build houses to withstand the severity of the Himalayan climate? What do they eat? Why do the
photographs of Sherpa families invariably reveal solid dependability and abundant good humour?
For years I sought a way of taking up residence in a Sherpa village but no such village came my way. At
last in 1955 1 had my opportunity in the form of an invitation to join the British Kangchenjunga
Expedition. By devious means I was able to arrange to stay in the Himalayas for the remainder of the year
after the mountain was climbed and find the answers to many of my questions.
This book does not attempt to give an anthropologist's account of a complete race, but it is rather the
description of the heterogeneous succession of Sherpas whom I had the good fortune to meet during almost
a year's travelling in the remote mountain valleys of Nepal,
Although the party described in the second half of the book went under the name of 'Mount Chamlang
Survey Expedition', and we received financial assistance for surveymg purposes, the technicalities of that
science, and the statistics of an anthropologist have been suppressed in this book. My theme is Sherpas,
unsullied by science and as yet unspoiled by western civilisation,
A small expedition intentionally avoiding publicity and remaining in the field for a long time benefits
greatly from many friends in India and Nepal. For handling mail, for hospitality and helpful advice 1 thank
the staff of the
British Embassy, Kathmandu, the New Zealand Trade Commissioner, Bombay, the Indian Army Check
Post, Namche Bazar, Robert Hotz of Delhi, and the Doctors Strong at Raxaul.
To the Kangchenjunga Expedition as a whole I owe the fact that I was adequately equipped for my
private venture, but to Charles Evans; the leader,
I owe far more than that. His advice and example on his many journeys in
S
6 PREFACB
Nepal have been an inspiration to me. I am greatly indebted to many individuals and organisations in the
United Kingdom for material assistance, especially to the Himalayan Foundation for their financial help.
To my wife Enid, Joe Macdonald and Urkien I owe my appreciation of their tolerance of a driving leader,
and for their pleasant company at all times. In addition I owe my thanks to Enid for the use of her
photographs and diary, and above all for remoulding my fragmentary notes into a readable book form.*
NORMAN HARDIE * and for writing this
preface.
CONTENTS
PREPACB page -S
I. After Kangchenjunga 9
Il. Private Expedition 16
Ill. Pastures New 30
The Humid Arun 45
V. South of Chamlang 57
Dumji 70
Vll. Living High 87
VIII. Daily Life in Khumjung 101
IX. Marriage and Medicine 113
X. Indian Interlude 126
XI. Back to Khumjung 138
Xll. The Hongu 153
Xlll.Finish Hogia 170
GLOSSARY 187
INDEX 189
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE Frontispiece:
Sherpanis returning to their homes.
1. Gyalgen appreciates a rhododendron bloom. Samdi makes running 32
repairs, The author and friends are welcomed back.
2. Urkien. Urkien with his eldest son, Gaon Jemba. A Sherpa boy is 33
intrigued with the author's binoculars. Changjup's Tibetan wife with her son and daughter.
3. Kami Doma, elder daughter of Sherpa Lama. Leaders of 'the
younger set' in Khumjung. The shelves of Urkien's house. 48
4. Tashi with his wife and their five children. Gyalgen and his wife 49
with their two children.
with their two children.
5. Contrast in the skylines of Hindu and Buddhist temples. Buddhist 64
Shrine near Kathmandu.
6. A Nepalese waits for customers. An easy track in the lower foot- 65
hills passes by an old Newari rest house. *One of the safer bridges on the route from Kathmandu.
7. In the courtyard of a house at Junbesi. Shearing sheep at Junbesi. 80
*A caravan of grunting yak arriving from Tibet.
8. Kami Doma, the Lama's daughter. Sherap Lama enjoys winnow- 81
ing buckwheat. House-building in Khumjung.
9. A painstaking housewife slicing cooked potatoes. A Sherpani 112
excavating a potato clamp. *Khumjung people harvest the hay for winter yak fodder.
10. A previously unmapped tributary of the Hongu valley. A view 113
of the monastery across the Thyangboche meadow.
11. Enid enjoys breakfast outside the yak-herd hut at Lobuje. *The 128
author carrying wood to a high camp in the Chola Khola valley.
12. *The author. The memsahib writing her diary. 129
13. A Sherpa artist's conception of a yak, a goat and a sheep. Holy 144
vessels and musical instruments.
14. Thirsty Sherpas wait eagerly while chang is poured at a wayside 145
stop. *The author crossing a precarious bridge. A view from Taksindu to the range separating the Innukhu
from the Lukla
15. A silver tea cup with lid and stand. *A village meeting in Khum- 160
jung. Scaffolding erected by Buddhist monks.
16. Descending on the route into Kathmandu. A view of Khumjung. 161
* Plates marked thus are from photographs by Enid Hardie. The rest are by the author.
CHAPTER 1
After Kangchenjunga
IT was the 26th May 1955. All over Britain men and women were making their
way to the polling booths to record their votes in the General Election—the
conscientious walked and the coaxed were driven. In a remote corner of
Southern Asia two men stood at the summit of a great mountain and looked in
silence at the world below them. The screaming winds held their peace, and in
the tranquil sunshine the gleaming peak of Kangchenjunga was as sacred as
Olympus itself—a true dwelling place of the gods.
I spoke—somewhat sheepishly—and the spell was broken, 'We made it,
Tony.' Streather's only reply was a flashing grin above the black rubber of his
discarded oxygen mask. That day I told my companion, who was always ready
to insist he was no mountaineer, that he had become the first man in the world
to have climbed two peaks of over 25,000 feet.
The view far into Tibet to the north, with Everest and Makalu eighty miles to
the west, fulfilled my earlier hopes, and gave further impetus to the plans of my
next venture into the Sherpa country. Even as I felt an irrepressible sense of
satisfaction, my eyes wandered inadvertently to the brown hils of Tibet, a
reminder of political differences more insurmountable than geographical
barriers. All the physical discomforts and mental irritations of the previous
weeks were forgotten. We ate some food, changed oxygen bottles and took
photographs, and I pointed out the peaks beside Chamlang where I would be
conducting a private survey expedition later in the year. Fifty-five minutes
passed all too rapidly, and we remembered Charles Evans our leader, who
would be waiting anxiously at Camp V in his chosen reserve capacity.
9
We descended by our upward route, taking great care with the ice steps which
had to be scraped clean of new wind-blown debris. At five o'clock we reached
our top camp, VI, but as on the previous night, we had little sleep in that tiny
haven, pitched on a ledge hacked from the steep ice of the Gangway.
We were greeted at Camp V by Charles Evans and Dawa Tensing, both
looking grey and lean from their long sojourn at above 25,000 feet. Charles
asked, 'Did you get to the top, you so-and-sos?'
'Who won the Election?' was the retaliation.
At Camp IV Urkien and Changjup, two of the very cream of Sherpas, came
out to meet us, and seeing their broad grins we were reminded of their unstinted
efforts in building up the vital supplies which had enabled us to make the final
push. More than ever we felt part of a great team.
Urkien's initiation had been with Sir Edmund Hillary's New Zealand Alpine
Club Expedition, attempting peaks in the Barun valley, and there he reached
more summits than any other Sherpa. He was a brilliant success as a medical
orderly, linguist and servant, and he showed signs of being a leader. Later he
was with a small party which circled the Annapurna range. From this he
returned with a glowing testimonial and some English. As he did not fully
understand the meaning of his new knowledge, he asked me to translate into his
own tongue, 'Oh my darling,' and 'Thank you lovely.' On Kangchcnjunga his
accomplishments in every aspect of Sherpa work were so outstanding that he
was universally ranked second or third in a party whose success was probably
due more than anything else to the high quality of its Sherpas. But even if
Urkien were useless as a climber, he is worth attaching to a party for his
cheerfulness and his musical appreciation and singing voice.
The senior Sherpa in a party has the rank of Sirdar, and in my private
expedition Urkien would be in that position for the first time. The
Kangchenjunga Sirdar was the highly respected Dawa Tensing—a tower of
strength and understanding, and a very great leader. He is a Khumjung Sherpa,
and nearly all of his team came from that village or its neighbour, Khundi. These
villages are only sixteen miles in a straight line from Mount Everest, and in them
I wished to live later in the year.
Changjup has for many years been one of the most devoted of Evans's
admirers. On another morning, when Charles had eaten almost no breakfast and
the Sherpas had sore eyes from the smoke in their tents, we passed a miserable
Changjup seated on the ice with his eyes buried in his sleeve. The glare of the
ice was already adding to the pain in his eyes. Charles asked, 'Can I help you,
