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People Worth Remembering (one in a series): Tenzing Norgay • Vol. 19: #47 • Tidbits Coachella Valley
Although his name might not be familiar, the accomplishments of Tenzing Norgay are well known. This week Tidbits presents the story of this Sherpa mountaineer who was one of the first two documented people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• Norgay was born in northeastern Nepal, the son of a Tibetan yak herder. Although he started life with the name of Namgyal Wangdi, the founder of a nearby monastery advised his parents to change the name to Tenzing Norgay which translates as “wealthy, fortunate follower of religion”
• He ran away from home twice as a teenager, and was sent to a Buddhist monastery to become a monk. But Norgay soon abandoned the monastery to settle in the Sherpa community, a Tibetan ethnic group native to the Himalayas’ most mountainous regions.
• In 1935, at age 20, Norgay participated in his first Everest expedition. He took part in several more unsuccessful ascents throughout the 1930s and 1940s, including as a guide in an illegal attempt by a Canadian mountaineer in 1947, one that ended when a powerful storm hit the group at 22,000 feet, forcing the group of three to give up and turn around.
• In 1949, Nepal opened its borders to tourists and mountaineers and the conquest of Mt. Everest became the goal of numerous expeditions. Norgay was part of a 1952 Swiss expedition that reached the 28,210 foot level, just 825 feet shy of the 29,035-foot summit, but was forced to turn back due to lack of supplies.
• By the time a large British expedition was organized in 1953, Norgay had been on six Everest treks. Headed by British Army Colonel John Hunt, the crew had a total of more than 400 people, which included 362 porters and 20 Sherpa guides, including Norgay, and 10,000 pounds of food supplies and equipment.
• Veteran climber Edmund Hillary of New Zealand was a member of Hunt’s crew. A beekeeper during the off-season, Hillary had been saved by Norgay from a fall into a crevasse on a previous expedition. As a result, Norgay was Hillary’s climbing partner of choice for the 1953 party.
• The group spent the night of May 28, 1953 at 27,900 feet. On the following morning, when Hillary and Norgay were just below the summit, Hillary threw down a rope to Norgay, and at about 11:30 A.M., the pair victoriously arrived at the world’s highest point, the first documented humans ever to do so.
• The two men spent just 15 minutes at the summit. Norgay said a prayer, made an offering, and planted four flags, one for Britain, Nepal, India, and the United Nations. Because Norgay had never used a camera, Hillary took a photo of him holding his ice-axe. There was no photo of Hillary.
• When questions arose as to who was the first to step foot on the top, Colonel Hunt declared, “They reached it together, as a team.” Later that year, Hillary and Hunt were knighted by the Queen Elizabeth II. Because Norgay was not a British citizen, he only received the honorary British Empire Medal.
• Tenzing Norgay spoke several languages but could neither read nor write. Following his Everest achievement, he became the first Director of Field Training of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. In 1975, he had the honor of serving as the guide for the first American tourist party allowed into the country. Shortly afterward, he founded Tenzing Norgay Adventures, specializing in Himalayan trekking adventures.
• Norgay died in 1986 at the age of 71. Ten years after his death, Norgay’s son Jamling followed in his father’s footsteps by reaching the summit of Everest in 1996. In 2003, Jamling teamed up with Edmund Hillary’s son Peter to climb to the Everest summit on the 50th anniversary of their fathers’ historic achievement.
