Tenzing grew up in Thamey, a village in the Solo Khumbu, a district inhabited by Sherpa people in Nepal near the base of Mount Everest. The Sherpas had migrated to Tibet from Mongolia many years previously and then left Tibet to settle in the Solo Khumbu district. The Sherpas were known for their skill in mountain climbing. After his ascent with Hillary, Tenzing became internationally famous and a hero to the Sherpa and Nepalese people. He devoted the rest of his life to improving the way of life of the Sherpas.
It goes on to relate that the Sherpas probably migrated into Nepal and India from Tibet. Their language is similar to Tibetan and the religion, lamaism, a form of Buddhism, is part of the Tibetan culture. It is thought that they came to Nepal during the 16th century and have settled into a mostly agrarian life except for the growing development around Everest and the recent building of schools to bring their children into a more modern world. The population of Sherpas spread out into these three countries is about 25,000. Krakauer points out how important the climbing industry has been to their lives and economy.
Krakauer continues to say that Buddhism,
... as it is practiced in the high reaches of the Khumbu has a distinctly animistic flavor: the Sherpas venerate a tangled mélange of deities and spirits who are said to inhabit the canyons, rivers, and peaks of the region. And paying proper homage to this ensemble of deities is considered crucially important to ensure safe passage throught the treacherous landscape.
Some time ago I wrote of Edward Shackleton's famous expedition to cross Antarctica by foot in the Endurance. This ill-fated failure of an expedition is famous for the bravery, valor, honor and its view of the best that man can muster. The expedition was ice-bound in thick, Antarctic ice for much of a year. Their leader, Shackleton, then led them in small boats huge distances across stormy seas and barren places until they found a desolate haven. He left the bulk of his men and set out on an epic test of seamanship until he reached a lonely whaling outpost. In spite of a heart attack and amputation done under primitive conditions and a year of extreme privation, Shackleton leads every one of his crew to safety beyond all odds. It is an incredibly uplifting story.
Into Thin Air is fascinating, factual and powerful. The difference may be a difference of eras. Krakauer writes of climbers besotted with desire to reach their goal blithely plodding by dying men and women without even stopping for a word or to share some water or oxygen. He describes a South African team led by a fraud that refuses to offer any help to fellow climbers fighting for their lives. He also describes an IMAX film crew nearing the end of a $5.5 million film who stop their activity to assist in the rescue and make available a cache of oxygen bottles that have been laboriously carried up to a higher camp for their attempt to summit the mountain.
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