The people Sherpa are a group Ethnique originating in Tibet. In Tibetan, shar means “is” and Pa is a suffix which means “people”: from where the word Sharpa or Sherpa, indicating those which come from the east. Approximately 500 years ago, Sherpas left the province of Kham, located in the east of the Tibet (Buddhist), to come to be established in the high Himalayan valleys of the Nepal, in particular with the foot of the Mount Everest.

Sherpas are 154.622, according to the data of the census of 2001. They belong to group more vast, which lives all along the northern fringe of the Nepal at the border of Tibet, that one indicates by term Bothia in népali, which is used to identify those which comes from Tibet ( Both ), across the Himalayas.

The habitat of Sherpas

The habitat of Sherpas presents living conditions among hardest to the world. The climatic conditions are rigorous there because of extreme altitudes. The relief is very broken. There is no road. That paths connecting the villages ones to the others. Sherpas must go to move. The transport of the goods is accomplished with back of men or using animals of pack, in particular the yak and the dzo (crossing between cow and yak).

Sherpas live mainly the areas of the Solu, the Pharak and the Khumbu in Nepal. Important communities sherpa are also established in the adjacent areas, in particular in the valleys of the Langtang, the Rolwaling and the Hélambu in the north of Katmandou.

The principal villages sherpa are located at Khumbu, which constitutes the true heart of the country sherpa. Sherpas are definitely majority there. Namche Bazaar (Sherpas say Naujie or Nauche), counting a little more than 100 dwellings, is populeux. There are also Thame, Khunde, Khumjung, Phortse, Pangboche. Pangboche would be the oldest village sherpa in Nepal. It would have been built there is more than 300 years. In the north of these villages, higher in the mountain, kharka , zones of high pastures are comprising some temporary dwellings and some lodges (small rustic inns for the tourists of passage).

In spite of their restricted number, Sherpas are also found in other areas of Nepal, especially close to the high summits and in the tourist centers having an important hotel industry. They are numerous with Katmandou and Pokhara, close to the solid mass of Annapurna in the mid-west of Nepal. Important communities sherpa occupy the valley of Arun close to Makalu, in the North-East of Nepal. Except Nepal, in India in particular, communities sherpa are established in the areas of Darjeeling, of Kalimpong just as in the Indian state of the Sikkim.

Lifestyle of Sherpas

Sherpas are traditionally tradesmen, farmers and pastors. The majority of the sherpa families have some fields, rather low-size, of which one is contiguous to their house. The others are often at important distances. This parcelling out of the ground is mainly due to the rules governing the heritage.

In Solu, Sherpas are mainly farmers whereas the climatic conditions allow varied cultures. More in north in Khumbu, they make the breeding of the yak and practice an agriculture of subsistence where the climatic conditions allow it. They cultivate barley, corn, buckwheat and potato. This one was introduced in Khumbu at the XIXe century. Owing to the fact that one can cultivate it at altitudes higher than those of Scandinavian cereals, this culture passably modified the mode of subsistence of Sherpas. The summer, Sherpas lead their animals in the mountain pastures of altitude ( kharka ). The families lay out very rudimentary hut most of the time to with it ( yersa ) to shelter during their stay with the kharka.

Alpine forwardings on the Himalayan high summits and the excursions of trekking on the tracks of approach of these tops, opened new possibilities in Sherpas. Those practice from now on in great number the trades of the mountain by accompanying the members by alpine forwardings on the tops just as the trekkeurs on the paths by the country sherpa. These trades came to fill an important shortfall because of reduction in the trade of salt Tibetan, following the annexation of Tibet by China.

The company sherpa

Sherpas speak a Dialecte Tibetan attached to the family about the languages tibéto-Burmeses. Their social organization is based on the patrilineal clan. The authority within the family concerns the father. The rule of filiation is thus paternal: in the absence of the father, the authority on the children is exerted by a member of the paternal clan, usually his older brother. The clans are exogames: Sherpa cannot marry a person belonging to her own clan. The company sherpa account nowadays a score of clans of which Punassa, Lhurka, Paldorjee, Nawa, Chappa, etc

Social stratification

At Sherpas, there is no strictly speaking mode of castes, as it is the case among hindouists. The company nevertheless is treated on a hierarchical basis. The most former clans are considered higher than the clans gathering those which arrived during the XVIIIe century. The immigrants of more recent origin Tibetan train lower a “caste” considered impure. The members of this group often exert trades which are prohibited in Sherpas: those of blacksmith ( kami ) and of stopping ( yiawa ) in particular. The preponderance of the clan tends to decrease within the company sherpa itself, the richness becoming more and more the criterion of social differentiation.

Social inequalities

The company sherpa is uneven. Formerly, the richest families were those which had the vastest herds of yaks. Several lived in particular the area of Khumjung and Khunde, two villages close in north to Namche Bazar. These villages are always inhabited by relatively easy families. The company sherpa account from now on of new rich person. Several Sherpas knew to benefit from the rise of tourism to launch out in business and extremely well succeeded: owners of inns, restaurants, agencies of trekking, mountain guides, etc the gap between the rich person and the poor was accentuated. Beside the prosperous owners, live in an extreme poverty, many sherpa families, especially apart from the circuits attended by the tourists.

The family

Sherpani (woman sherpa) is subjugated with her husband. She deals with the pieces of housework, of the education of the children and the cultures in the absence of the husband. She often manages the expenditure of the home. With the advent of the trekking, many Sherpas opened small inns or converted part of their houses into lodges to adapt the trekkeurs. During the tourist seasons, in spring and the autumn, when the husbands leave to the mountain, Sherpani assume the whole responsibility for the hearth and ensure the operation of the lodges and the small inns.

The parents sherpa are very permissive in what milked with the education of the children. The children in addition see themselves very early entrusting responsibilities in the life. They must carry out the drudgeries of water and firewood. One often sees the young girls carrying an young child of the family in a kind of fabric pocket fixed on their back. The young boys early learn how to take care of the yaks. Towards the end of adolescence, many which is those leave in the high pastures to make there feed the yaks during the summer season. Traditionally, although it is not strictly practiced, the first name allotted to the men often corresponds to the day of the week when they were born: Dawa (Monday); Mingma (Tuesday); Lhakpa (Wednesday); Phurba (Thursday); Pasang (Friday); Pemba (Saturday); Ngima (Sunday). Sherpas have as a patronym, the name of their ethnos group. In order to be distinguished between them, since many are those which bear the same name, Sherpas are accustomed to specifying the place of residence of the person whom they want to designate: Mingma Sherpa de Pangboche or Pasang Sherpa de Khumjung for example.

The religion of Sherpas

One cannot speak about Sherpas without approaching their religion, especially their religious enthusiasm, so much their daily newspaper is impregnated. Sherpas are Buddhist. More precisely, they practice Buddhism tantric attached to the Mahayana school, sometimes called Buddhism Tibetan or lamaïsme. This form of Buddhism is characterized by its many divinities and a whole of ritual largely calling upon the movement and the sound, which gives a character to him somewhat esoteric. Having preserved rudiments of the old prebouddhic religion bön, Buddhism of Sherpas comprises many superstitions and belief in a world of malevolent spirits, from where the recourse to chamanic practices having in particular for goal to persuade the bad spirits, causes disease and of misfortune. The exposure of Sherpas to the Western tourists and the development of their communities undoubtedly caused to gradually attenuate important some of these practices in the communities which have the most contacts with the Western visitors. The Shamans would be far from numerous from now on in the communities sherpa and their influence would not be any more very convincing.

Spangled

In this form of Buddhism, the priests are spangled. They live in monasteries (gompa). The monks who pronounced their vows of celibacy are appointed by the term gelung . As for the monks beginners, one names them chade . Each monastery is directed by a lamache (Large LAMA).

The clergy also counts spangled village. They are peasants, married most of the time, having acquired some religious knowledge in a monastery or at an other LAMA. Sherpas respect as much spangled them village that spangled them monasteries. As spangled them, the lamini can be nuns or married. They are however not considered as much than spangled them in the community. Spangled monasteries meet daily to attend the religious offices during which they recite in chorus of will mantras, while making turn their prayer wheels, while blows of drum, gong and cymbal resound. Long hours are also devoted to the study of philosophy and the crowned texts.

Ceremonies and festivals

Spangled proceed to many ceremonies of prayers with regard to all that belongs to the framework of life of Sherpas: blessing of the houses, the herds, harvests, prayers at the time them death to help the heart of death to find the way of its future incarnation, etc

They organize great religious holidays which are at the same time occasions of rejoicings for the whole of the community. The peasants then have to attend the high ceremonies colors where monk-dancers, bearing clothes of pageantry and masks, personify gods and demons in the choreographies sophisticated having for goal of course to point out the victory of the evil. The most spectacular religious holiday is the Mani Rimdu . It is held each spring in Thame and the autumn with Tengboche (Tyangboche), where the most famous monastery of the country sherpa is. The summer takes place the Dumje in Pangboche. Losar , the Tibetan New Year's Day, is also celebrated by Sherpas.

Religious enthusiasm

The landscapes of the country sherpa are impressed of their religious enthusiasm. Reliquaries (chorten) containing the remainders of monk, the objects having belonged to them or quite simply of the crowned objects, are drawn up on the collars of mountain or keep the entry of the villages. Along the paths, engraved stones of prayers or illustrations with religious connotation (mani) are piled up to form long low walls. Hung to the houses, the religious monuments and the top of the collars, float with the wind of the flags with prayers, small multicoloured rolls of material printed of prayers, placed side by side on cords. At the edge of the brooks and rivers, large prayer wheels, in the shape of cylinders engraved of will mantras, turn by the action of the water of the torrents which descend the slopes. Prayer wheels moreover small sizes are also often aligned in line and are embedded in the walls of the buildings and religious monuments. To make turn of the right hand in the direction of the needles of a watch is equivalent requesting for Sherpas.

These objects are not simple religious decorations. Actuated by the wind or water, they are used to transmit the prayers which are registered there towards beyond. When the object is not driven by a natural force, the movement of the passer by which circumvents it fulfills the same function. To circumvent a chorten is the equivalent of a prayer. In the same way, to circumvent a wall mani is equivalent reciting all the prayers which are registered on the stones which are piled up there. In country sherpa, the religious monuments must always be circumvented by the left, so that they are located on the right, the left side being considered impure. Buddhism of Sherpas postulates the reincarnation of the beings. The quality of the next incarnation depends on the karma, i.e. merits obtained by the sum of good and ill deeds in the present life and the former lives. The prayers are méritoires. Also, Sherpas use objects which “request” mechanically to increase their merits for a good reincarnation. It is enough to observe them somewhat to note that these practices do not decrease of anything their religious enthusiasm.

The food of Sherpas

Sherpas raise the yak (yak), they are of aillor very proud. They raise it for its flesh, its wool, its skin, its milk (barraté to make of it cheese and butter) and its dung.

In the past, Sherpas nourished only few products of their thin cultures and more rarely of their breeding: barley and buckwheat flour, some varieties of vegetables and an exceptionally little meat. With the barley roasted added with water or the salted, sometimes enriched by butter of yak, one prepared the tsampa , the traditional met Tibetan, consistent in a kind of mashed potatoes dense. With the barley and buckwheat, one prepared also chapati , a kind of wafer bread cooks in a frying pan. The records days, of small pieces of meat mixed with the dishes decorated the meals. Though the tsampa account always among the dishes prepared by Sherpas, the potato replaced it like basic food. Used various ways, it made it possible to vary the menus. Sherpas appreciate in particular the gurr , a wafer of potato to the spices which one eats with cheese. The shakpa , is a kind of soup to the vegetables to which one adds spongy pellets of paste. The chuchif , a dried cheese cut in cubes very hard, also is very appreciated. The momo ( kothe ), a dish typically Tibetan made of raviolis stuffed with meat or vegetables cooked with the vapor or fried, is served certain feastdays or to honor a guest. Some vegetables cultivated on the spot come to decorate the basic dishes: cabbages, onions, radish and some other varieties. The easier families can get various food products at the markets: meat of dried ewe, pastes, dried milk, oil, eggs, cookies, flour etc

Rice, conveyed hills, is particularly appreciated but all the families cannot allow it because it is expensive. It is in addition offered to the tourists in the form of dal bath , where it is mixed with a soup of lenses or vegetables. The same applies to the meat because it is rare. The Buddhists feel reluctant to kill out of the animals. The meat of yak is appreciated but in general, only the old animals or those which are victims of an accident are consumed. Sometimes animals are killed to make butchery by a “foreigner” pertaining to a category or “caste” considered to be impure by Sherpas. Sherpas are fond of delicacies of the Tibetan to rancid butter ( sucha ), also called fecha . They manufacture the chang , a kind of beer containing barley whose alcoholic strength is relatively weak, just as the arak ( rakshi in népali), an alcohol much more vigorous.

Sherpas and trades of the mountain

Before the arrival of the first Western mountaineers in Nepal, the conquest of the Himalayan high summits did not constitute a concern for Sherpas. Alpine forwardings quickly modified the report/ratio which maintained Sherpas with the “residence the gods”. Living with the foot of the high summits, strong, courageous, enduring physically and being accustomed to the difficulties which the life in high mountain raises, they quickly were noticed and appreciated by the Westerners eager to conquer the Himalayan tops. Thanks to their company spirit, Sherpas were not going to miss exploiting this new opportunity being offered to them.

Courageous and untiring men

During the golden age of the himalayism, whereas alpine forwardings followed one another and that the cords went up to the attack of the more high summits of the world, Sherpas proved to be priceless assistances, even impossible to circumvent. They quickly cut an enviable international reputation in the universe of the Escalade and the Alpinisme.

Sherpas, exposed to high-altitude since generations, would have developed physiological mechanisms of genetic acclimatization: increase in alveolar surface and particular hemoglobin. Their pulmonary capacity would be some thus increased.

One says of Sherpas that they are not only courageous but also untiring with the task, even under the worst conditions. Their enjoué and merry temperament also is very appreciated mountaineers and trekkeurs. One praises especially their great honesty. One does not count any more the events where of Sherpas risked their life to save the climbing ones unweaves some on the tops. Moreover, they hold a quite sad record, on the Everest in particular, whereas they are most numerous to have found death there.

Their service and their qualities marked the world of the high mountain so much that nowadays, the term “sherpa” is abundantly used, incorrectly besides, to indicate those which practice the trades of the mountain. The Sherpa term more precisely indicates an ethnos group, not a trade.

Trades of the mountain and employment related

The majority of the “carriers of altitude” accompanying alpine forwardings on the high summits belong indeed to the Sherpa ethnos group. The mountain guides are also most of the time of Sherpas. The latter however gradually forsook the function of carrier within the excursions of trekking. They were replaced there by Nepaleses belonging in particular to the Raï ethnos groups, Tamang and Gurung. People of caste of the hills practice also the trade of carrier. Sherpas exert usually the functions best remunerated in the scale of the trades of the mountain: sirdar (chief of the Nepalese teams accompanying forwardings), mountain guide, carrying altitude and cook.

In margin of their implication in the trades of the mountain themselves, of many Sherpas exerts related employment. Several are owners of agencies organizing of alpine forwardings and especially excursions of trekking. The trekking became a true industry in Nepal. These agencies are mainly located at Katmandou and Pokhara. The international travel agencies specialized in the voyage of adventure often treat with these local Nepalese agencies for the organization of logistics supporting the circuits of trekking which they offer to their customers trekkeurs. Sherpas thus became a belt quasi-impossible to circumvent in the universe of the Himalayan mountaineering.

Of Sherpas famous

Most known Sherpa is Tenzing Norgay. Making team with Edmund Hillary, they have the conquered first the Everest in May 1953.

Babu Chhiri Sherpa established the record of the more long period of time spent at the top of the Everest without oxygen. May 6th, 1999, there remained there 21 hours 30 minutes, surprising all the experts who did not believe the man able to expose himself also a long time in environment such a low in oxygen. Two Sherpas, Pemba Dorjie and Lhakpa Gelu, recently contributed in order to know which of both could climb the Mount Everest most quickly starting from the base camp. May 23rd 2003, Dorjie makes a success of the climbing in 12 hours and 46 minutes. Three days later, Gelu beat its 2 hour old record, arriving in 10 hours 46 minutes. May 21st 2004, Pemba Dorjie still improved the record by more than two hours, with 8 hours and ten minutes a total time. This new record was initially disputed by its competitors. After investigation, the Ministry for Nepalese Tourism confirmed this new record.

May 16th 2007, Appa Sherpa succeeded in the exploit to climb the Mount Everest for the 17th time, leaf its own record of the greatest number of rises successful on the Everest.

See too

• the demography of Nepal
• Tengboche
• Sirdar

External bonds

• Sherpa, Helambu - Joshua Project
• Sherpa, Nawa - Joshua Project

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