People and Culture in Everest Region

Sherpa people

Sherpas: Sherpa means "easterner" because they came from the Kham in eastern Tibet. One of the first persons to come to Khumbu came by way of the Rolwaling valley and Tashi Lhapcha pass. He opened this valley so other people could come to settle. Later many families came from Tibet over the Nangpa La (pass). He came to Khumbu from Kham Salmo-Gang (east of Tibet). His clan was called Thimi. When he came to Tibet, the people asked where he came from – “the cast part of Kham”. That is how the name Sher-pa, meaning east people, came to be....

For 600 years, people have migrated from Tibet to these mountain valleys in Nepal. There was a time of great unrest in Tibet when many Lamas, their families and followers left their homes looking for new places to live. They settled in the mountain valleys of northern Nepal. These places came to be called Yolmo (Helambu), Langtang, and Khumbu. Now they live in the Solu-Khumbu district, Sagarmatha zone of Nepal. They live in the highest places. In the Khumbu, they number about 9500 with a total of roughly 55,000 living in all of Nepal. The Sherpa language (a dialect of Tibetan), literature, history and Philosophy came from old Tibetan religious books.

Today approximately 55,000 Sherpas live in Nepal and around 9500 of them live in the Khumbu region on the south side of Everest. Since the 1950s, tourism has become the dominant source of employment and income in the area. Many Sherpas, as well as people from other ethnic groups, work as part of the climbing and tourism industry. While the Sherpa people retain their Buddhist religion and many of their traditional practices, this shift in the local economy and way of life has necessarily meant changes in the Sherpa culture. Among these, there has been a shift from regarding climbing the mountain as blasphemous, to regarding it as a source of economic opportunity and pride. Sherpas hold many impressive Everest records, including most times summitted for men and women, quickest ascent, without oxygen ascent, quickest descent, and most time spent on top and youngest climbers to reach the summit.

Sherpa Religion and Culture

In Solu-Khumbu the most common sect of Tibetan Buddhism is the Nyingmapa, the oldest tradition. Sherpa and Tibetan lamas taught this religion to the people and organized the communities.  These Sherpa and Tibetan Ngakpa (lay Lamas) brought teaching from Tibet to Khumbu that were from Books hidden by the founder of Tibetan Buddhism, Guru Rinpoche. Lamas called tertons are incarnations of Guru Rinpoche who rediscovered these hidden teachings. Ter means “spiritual treasure” in Tibetan. A lama named Rigdzin Godem found some of these books, the Chang-ter, hidden in northern Tibet. The other lama, Nyatak – Nyung, found the Lho-ter in southern Tibet. The terton, Terdak Lingpa found the books and wrote the texts used in the Sherpa’s Pujahs, religious rituals.

As more people came to Khumbu, traditions started that helped to unite the villagers and to project the valley. Daily life revolves around each village Gompa/Stupa (temple). Closely tied to Buddhist beliefs are their daily activates of farming, herding and trading. Since the 1950s they have worked for tourists and earned fame on climbing expeditions.   

Sherpa Language 

The Sherpa language is only a spoken language. There have been attempts in recent years to introduce a written form of this language based on the Tibetan script. But this is not an easy undertaking. The Sherpa language definitely goes back to a Tibetan dialect spoken in the eastern Tibetan Kham province in the 15th century, but it has developed in its own way for the last 500 years. So, it must be regarded as a language of its own separate from Tibetan. In modern times, Sherpa language has been enriched by a number of words taken from Nepali or English. Even within the Sherpa area one finds a lot of regional differences in the current use of the language. In Khumbu, for example, the use of words is a bit different from that of Pharak, Shorung (nep.: Solu), Helambu, Rolwaling, the Arun valley, Darjeeling etc. In the following list, the words have been written in the way they are used in Lhakpa's and Tendi’s home area, the Takshindu region of Shorung

Sherpa occupation 

Before 1959, most Sherpas farmed and traded with Tibet . The business with Tibet was usually for salt and wool. Today, most people work mountaineering, trekking, portering, or doing religious services. The old people spend some of their time saying whatever prayers they know, going around stone mani walls and village jha-khangs. and helping with their families.

Sherpa Food 

Potatoes, buckwheat, and barley are traditionally the main foods in Khumbu. Except for items brought up by traders, Sherpa food is limited to crops that can grow at the cold, high altitudes of the Khumbu. Sherpas eat some Tibetan foods, such as shykpa, tsampa (roasted barley flour), and some Nepali food such as dal bhat. Unique to the Sherpas are green vegetables that are cooked then fermented to keep, and kyu a sour or salty porridge of many grains-corns, rice, millet.

The Sherpas grow potatoes, buckwheat, barley turnips, and greens. Dairy products include butter, yogurt, and cheese. They purchase rice, lentils, corn, millet and fresh meat from down-valley traders at the market. Salt and dried sheep meat is obtained from traders coming from Tibet .

Sherpa Dress and appearance 

The traditional Sherpa clothing is similar to that of Tibetans. Most of their hats were distinctive to Solu-Khumbu. The basic garment of the Sherpas, the chuba, originated in the cold climate of Tibet . It is a warm ankle-length robe that is bound around the waist by a long sash. The chubás upper portion becomes a large pocket for everything from money to bowls. Unrolled, the sleeves extend beyond the fingertips. 

In the past, chubas were made from strips of hand-woven woolen cloth. Originally they were the un-dyed white color of the sheep's wool from Tibet . Later we started dying they started dying the wool black or brown. On trading trips to Tibet , people often wore sheep skin chubas, jackets or pants

Sherpa House 

When the Sherpas first came to Solu-Khumbu, their homes were bamboo huts. Gradually they changed to being half stone, half split wooden logs. Eventually they became stone houses, and later with two floors. At present, there are even some three and four story hotels and houses.  Windows have been the fastest changing par of Sherpa houses, with the introduction of glass panes and just recently skylights are being added warming them up considerably both in light and in warmth.

The design of the lha-khang (chapel) was brought from Tibet. In every home it serves as a reminder of spiritual matters. 

Usually the houses had simple windows with an opening in a wooden frame that closed by a small door. The wooden lattice windows became popular in Khumbu when a Tibetan carpenter was re-building Tengboche gompa after the earthquake in 1934 used this design of window. Sherpas copied this design, especially in their household lha-khang windows. 

There are so many lodges along the most popular trekking trails in Nepal that it makes sense to use the facilities, rather than camp in their yards. While these Tea Houses are definitely not the alpine lodge which are often the height of rustic luxury in other parts of the world, they are uniquely Nepali and are being upgrade very fast these days to include toilets, showers, comfortable beds and great food. The Tea Houses give you a deep insight into the lives of the hardy mountain sherpa people, because most are family-run and just extensions of their family home. The food is nourishing and hygienically prepared and the environment cozy and congenial. We have carefully selected the lodges/Tea Houses which belong to our climbing sherpas familie.