According to Wikipedia, ‘the Sherpas are one of the Tibetan ethnic groups native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal and Tibetan Autonomous Region. The term Sherpa derives from the Tibetan-language words shar (east) and pa (people), which refer to their geographical origin in eastern Tibet.’ When Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, from Darjeeling, India and Edmund Hillary, from New Zealand became the first persons to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the term ‘Sherpa’ became quite well-known despite the fact that large sections of the Western media did their best to downplay Norgay’s role in the ascent, choosing to only focus on Hillary’s story. In any case, for anyone who has ambitions of climbing Mount Everest, Sherpas have, over the last few decades, become indispensable mountaineering guides and companions who are highly regarded for their sheer physical fortitude, excellent adaptation to very high altitudes (where the lack of adequate oxygen can leave most people struggling to breathe) and mental resilience in the face of difficult and dangerous situations. Unfortunately, however, despite being an integral part of every climbing expedition on the Himalayas, Sherpas remain relatively poorly paid and are often forced by their circumstances to work in particularly difficult conditions, with unfair demands placed on them by wealthy foreign clients.
In their recently published book, The Sherpa Trail: Stories from Darjeeling and Beyond, authors Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar have come together to bring to the world, the real, unfiltered and complete Sherpa story. An economist by training and an avid trekker, Purandare is the Editor of Himalayan Journal and President of the Himalayan Club. Balsavar, who teaches communication design at IDC, IIT Bombay, has worked as a consultant with UNICEF and has written and illustrated more than two dozen books for children. Both are based in Bombay and are founders of The Sherpa Project, the objective of which is to record oral histories via in-depth personal interviews with the Sherpa community in Darjeeling and elsewhere. ‘A compilation of such oral histories, The Sherpa Trail features a body of adventure literature far more significant than the endless procession of I-survived-the-death-zone accounts by Sherpas’ Western clients that crowd bestseller lists,’ says Katy Ives (former Editor-in-Chief of Alpinist magazine) in her foreword to the book. ‘Here, we read of young Sherpas who ran away from Khumbu during the early 20th century, chasing dreams of new opportunities in Darjeeling [and] we learn of people whose roles have all too often been ignored,’ she adds.
The authors started work on this book way back in 2012, when they set out to record and share Sherpa stories from in and around Darjeeling. For this, they met Sherpa families and spoke to Sherpa climbers to collate their memories and anecdotes, compiling these for posterity in the form of the written word which is this book. The process of putting the book together must have been incredibly hard, since it involved hundreds of conversations, with interviewees responding in a mix of Hindi, Nepali and English. ‘The hardest part was sifting through all the stories, facts, dates and names. Over 150 interviews – hundreds of hours of conversation – had to be condensed into a cohesive, readable and interesting narrative,’ the authors say.
Hard work it certainly must have been, and it’s paid off. The book presents a comprehensive picture of Sherpa history, culture, life and work on the mountains – their tales and travails, recounted by Sherpas themselves over a series of very interesting conversations. For these meetings and conversations, the authors made multiple trips to Darjeeling over many years. And not just that, there are also Sherpa stories from all over India – Calcutta, Bangalore, Delhi, Nagpur, Dehradun and Bombay – as well as outside the country, including France, the US and the UK. The book starts with a chapter on Sherpa history and their migration from Tibet to Nepal, and from the 1880s onwards, from Nepal to Darjeeling in India. As Darjeeling got fully connected to Calcutta by the railways in 1881, the small hill town blossomed and offered ample employment opportunities – early Bhutia and Sherpa settlers found work portering heavy luggage and pulling hand-drawn rickshaws. For British sahibs and memsahibs of that time, the ‘hill station’ of Darjeeling offered welcome respite from the brutal heat and dust of the plains – they would spend their holidays in Darjeeling, which meant work for the hardy Sherpas and a way for them to earn a living.
Over the years, as the British started undertaking elaborate mountaineering expeditions (some for geographical surveys, others for more general exploration) on Mount Everest, they found Sherpas willing and capable workers, who could undertake arduous journeys at high altitudes, carrying loads of luggage that simply wouldn’t be possible for most others. The authors trace the Sherpas’ rise in the late-19th to the early-20th centuries, with these hardy mountain men (and women) gaining recognition in mountaineering circles and making a name for themselves for their outstanding capabilities as high-altitude porters. In a manner that’s always interesting and engaging for the reader, they recount stories of various expeditions – not just on Mount Everest but also others, like Nanga Parbat – where Sherpas proved invaluable in helping those expeditions succeed.
The mainstay of the book are a selection of well-researched stories of individual Sherpas (and in some cases, their families) who made a name for themselves in the Himalayas. To quote a few examples, men like Ang Tharkay, a climbing veteran and an instructor at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, whose feats of courage on the mountains were legendary. (Loved and respected by all Sherpas, Tharkay continued to climb till the late-1970s, till the age of about 70, but succumbed to cancer in 1981. After his death, his family lost their house and farm in a landslide – a great man, whose end was blighted by misfortune.) And Pasang Dawa Lama, a flamboyant Sherpa who was also a tantric, a bit of a rogue and something of a ladies’ man – a right old character. And Ang Tsering, a kindly soul who climbed every mountain from Everest to Kangchenjunga to Kamet and Nanga Parbat, and was loved and respected by all who climbed with him. And yet, like many other Sherpas, Tsering faced neglect and discrimination and financial challenges. He passed away in 2002, at the age of 98. And there are many other Sherpa men and women who find mention in the book, all with stories that are remarkable in their own way, filled with memories both sweet and bitter, interesting little vignettes, personal anecdotes and nuggets of information that may be hard to come by anywhere else.
While the authors have written extensively about legendary Sherpa mountaineers, towards the end of the book they’ve also done a chapter on the current situation in the mountains and the many challenges that Sherpas continue to face to this day. These include the India vs Nepal situation (which necessitates keeping official papers of both countries to climb in different regions, which can be complex and expensive), having to fend for oneself without the social support structure of joint families, jobs that are hard to find and often very poorly paid, and clients’ tendency to bargain hard in an attempt to drive prices down. Some things, it seems, never change – climbing and portering at high altitudes, very high up in the mountains, in treacherous conditions, remains hard and dangerous work. It’s work that only the Sherpas can do, and yet pay remains poor and even basic conveniences can sometimes be hard for them to afford. And yet, there might just still be hope for the Sherpas. ‘A new generation of Sherpa youngsters is growing up and going to school. Their fathers climb mountains so they don’t have to. Darjeeling’s Sherpas are still on the move,’ the authors say. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in mountaineering culture and getting to know more about the legendary Sherpas, without whom mountaineering in the Himalayas might have looked very different and climbing successes may have been much harder to come by.
The Sherpa Trail: Stories from Darjeeling and Beyond
Authors: Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar
Publisher: Roli Books
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 352
Price: Rs 591
Available on Amazon
Book Review: The Sherpa Trail – Stories from Darjeeling and Beyond
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