Blog Entry #2: Colonization of Sagarmatha

   

 

In 1852, Radhandath Sikhdar, a scientist from India, discovered the 29,028 foot colossal that is now known as Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. After word of the discovery got out to the public, the race to the top immediately began and the impact of colonization quickly followed. Ever since the very first expedition was launched, Sherpas were hired to help guide the ascent up the mountain. A  hundred and one years after the discovery, Mt. Everest was finally conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a highly skilled Sherpa mountaineer.

For those who don’t know, Sherpas are a native culture from Nepal that live on the mountains in the Himalayan region. “There are no more than 20,000 in all of Nepal, a nation… that has some 20 million residents” (Krakauer 55), and they exist to protect the mountain. Sherpas are very spiritual people and they believe that the mountain (which they call “Sagarmatha”) is a living spirit. Once climbers began visiting Nepal to conquer Mt. Everest, the Sherpa culture and economy changed both in positive and negative ways.

The Nepal government eventually noticed the popularity Mt. Everest was garnering and decided to open up their borders to let their economy blossom from the mountain. They began charging climbers a significant amount of money to be able to climb Mt. Everest. Now it is free to travel to Nepal. This also greatly affected the Sherpa culture because they live on the mountain. Positively this opened up the economy for Sherpas. They became valuable guides that could carry very heavy loads for their size and deal with the high altitudes a lot easier than visiting mountaineers. Sherpas began picking their strongest citizens for hire to help with expeditions. Now Sherpas can “expect to earn $1,400 to $2,500 for two months of hazardous work” (Krakauer 57).  This is amazing pay for people in a third world country like Nepal where the “annual per capita income [is] around $160” (Krakauer 57).

Sherpas have also found other ways to make money off of the climbing expeditions without risking their lives. Many have opened restaurants and bars to gain income from mountaineers that are stopping by or staying the night on their way up the mountain. Certain Sherpas have even opened up to the growing world around them and have introduced western cultural items in their life like television, hamburgers and Coca-Cola.

As expected with such a dangerous job, many Sherpas have died while helping with the mountaineering expeditions. Although Sherpas are respected and praised by many climbers, their lives are not seen as equal compared to the paying clients who are part of the expedition groups. For example, one of the Sherpas who was climbing with Krakauer got a bad case of HAPE (pulmonary edema) and needed to be taken to a lower altitude. They never flew him down when they had a chance, but decided to carry him even though he was on the verge of death. As Krakauer explains “They should have flown him down the morning they had the chance. If it was one of Scott’s clients who was this sick, instead of a Sherpa, I don’t think he would have been treated so haphazardly” (Krakauer 146).

            Sadly, throughout the years, these mountaineering expeditions have polluted the sacred mountain. Many Sherpas are unhappy with the pollution caused by less respectful climbers and remind climber to respect the power of the mountain, blaming deaths and weather on Sagarmatha. Hundreds of oxygen tanks are always left on the mountain and in recent years there have been great efforts to clean up the mountain, yet much trash still remains reminding us of the post-colonial impact on Mt. Everest and the Sherpa culture.

Sherpas carrying heavy load to up a mountain