From the shadows to the pinnacle

EVERY year on May 9, only a few relatives and friends scattered over India, Nepal, the USA and Australia quietly remember the death anniversary of Tenzing Norgay.

Tenzing was born around 1914 while his mother was on a pilgrimage to Ghang-La monastery in Tibet. His early childhood was spent in Moyey village, where his family were serfs. They later became yak-herders in Thame village, a day’s trek from the Sherpa ‘capital’ of Namche Bazaar (above which is the famous Buddhist monastery of Thyangboche). In 1933, Tenzing finally moved to Darjeeling to work as a porter with mountaineering expeditions. He was 21 when he got his first exposure to the peak that would change his life with the 1935 Everest reconnaissance expedition led by the great British explorer, Eric Shipton.

In 1938, he was hand-picked for the British expedition to Everest led by Harold Tilman, Shipton’s partner in epic Himalayan exploration. Extraordinary stamina and endurance kindled in him a flame that would unwaveringly lead him to the ‘roof of the world.’

The year 1947 was a landmark year for Tenzing. He found work with a Swiss expedition to Garhwal and climbed the first four peaks of his life. Also, when the Sherpas’ sirdar was injured, he was appointed to the post. He earned the admiration and friendship of the Swiss members and, when the Swiss launched their two expeditions to Everest in 1952, he was chosen as the sirdar. The Swiss spring-time attempt, from the South East Ridge, saw Tenzing and his great friend, Raymond Lambert (neither spoke the other’s language), reach 8,595 metres (28,210 feet), the highest that any climber had been to till then. It opened the route till the South Column. All of Tenzing’s earlier attempts on the mountain had been from the north and it was by the South Col route that he was finally to climb Everest a year later. Subsequently, this route became the most popular.

By the time the 1953 British expedition led by John Hunt was launched, the Sherpa with the "shy, quiet smile" had become a legend in mountaineering circles. According to climbing historians, what set him apart was his sheer determination to succeed on Everest. Invited by Hunt to be a team member, a rapport grew between him and Hillary early on in the expedition. Both had extraordinary ability and cheerful temperaments, and enjoyed challenges. When the time came to plan the summit attempts, Hunt paired them in the second assault team.

Yet, the expedition had sour moments at the outset. In Kathmandu, the members stayed in the British Embassy while the Sherpas were allotted a garage without toilet facilities. Tenzing was entitled to a room in the embassy but chose to live with the Sherpas. They urinated very publicly and the incident made it to the newspapers.For the most part, though, the expedition’s decisions were wise. In the post-mortems of the 1953 success, it has been acknowledged that the decision to use oxygen while sleeping was a major factor. Pre-1953 expeditions had used oxygen only while the body was at work.

And so it was that, at the age of 37, about 18 years after his first trip to the mountain, Tenzing finally stood atop Everest. As he was to remark to Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Everest, in 1984, Everest didn’t give in to him easily. were lucky to climb it on your first try, I had to return to Everest seven times," he told her. Accounts differ but, according to Tenzing, he dug a hole in the snow on the summit and buried sweets, a pencil belonging to his daughter and a toy cat given by Hunt. The sweets were an offering to Chomolungma or ‘mother goddess of the world’, as Everest is worshipped by Tibetans.

Post-Everest, Tenzing was received by Queen Elizabeth II at a reception at Buckingham Palace attended by 6,000 people. Journalist Desmond Doig recalled many years later in a hilarious account in JS magazine how little old ladies heaped gifts of jewellery on Tenzing during his visit to Britain. He was awarded the United Kingdom’s George Medal and wrote his autobiography Tiger of the Snows, in collaboration with author James Ramsey Ullman. The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute was established in Darjeeling and Tenzing became its first principal. Tourists, especially from Calcutta, visited Darjeeling to pay a visit to the institute to see the hero. Tenzing was instrumental in inculcating a passion for mountaineering among a crop of Indian climbers, some of who made the first ascents of major Himalayan peaks. When the first Indian expedition to Everest was launched in 1960, he roped in Darjeeling’s women to knit woollen sweaters and socks for the hastily-organised expedition.

Yet, he could not understand why his own children opted to undergo the rigours of mountaineering. He famously objected to their mountaineering ambitions, saying, "I climbed Everest so that you wouldn’t have to." Tenzing died after an illness on May 9, 1986 and a misty-eyed Hillary arrived in Darjeeling for the mile-long funeral procession. A decade later, Tenzing’s son and grandson both climbed Everest – responding to a compulsion akin to that which had simmered within him for so many years, driving him from a village in Everest’s shadow to its pinnacle.

HOME