When Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa made history as the first people to summit Everest, the term Sherpa became synonymous with porters. But behind the name is a deep culture, with a long history.
Buddhist monk Ngawang Gombu Sherpa sits by the window and closes his eyes, thinking.
The sun barely makes it inside his home, a stone and wood structure in the village of Kurima, deep in the forested mountains that lie below Mount Everest to the east of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.
Ngawang Gombu straightens his back and speaks softly.
"When the monsoon came in Tibet it made 18 rivers, and there were 18 clans of people," he says, his voice floating gently around the room. "Then there was a marginalised group like the Dalits in Nepal. With it, there were 19. Among the 19, there was the Sherwa."
The Sherpa — originally known as Sherwa — migrated from these rivers before the border between Tibet and Nepal was established, settling in what is now the Solukhumbu region, where Everest lies.
They migrated out of necessity, Ngawang Gombu says.
"At that time, relations between the other clans and the Sherwa were not good. The others tried to attack the Sherwa, so the Sherwa left."
When the Sherpa arrived in Solukhumbu they gradually spread across the region in search of fertile land.
One of these areas was Kurima, Ngawang Gombu's village, which sits at the base of the Himalayas, 2000 metres above sea level.
"When they arrived, our village was known as 'mimet lungba' or 'no man's land'," Ngawang Gombu says.
There are many legends for how Kurima got its name. Some say "Kuri" means "mountain hills" in Sherpa language and "Ma" means "village".
Others tell tales of conflict and adventure. But they all culminate in the same thing — a village, home to a community of Sherpas, hidden inside the jungle.
Tourism transformed a difficult way of life
The way of life in Kurima was difficult before tourism came to Nepal's mountains in the 1950s, according to the older villagers.
When mountaineers began to visit the region to climb, some Sherpa found jobs as guides and porters and the name of the ethnic group became synonymous with the work they did. But the term Sherpa does not describe an occupation. The Sherpa are a distinct cultural group with their own language and customs.
Sumjyok Sherpa, 79, says life was "tragic" before tourism brought extra income to the village.
"Everything was made by hand back then. There were no [proper] houses … there was no school. Parents had to teach everything by themselves to their children — all the culture, education, behaviour," she says. "And there was not enough food."
Over the past 70 years, economic and infrastructure development across Nepal has altered life in Kurima.
A dirt road has brought in both good and bad. Villagers in Kurima now have access to healthcare. But the road has also delivered plastic waste and junk food.
The houses in Kurima used to be far simpler. Known as Bakhang, homes were built from strips of wood and bamboo, says Ngawang Chhepal Sherpa, 80, who lives about 10 minutes' walk from Sumjyok.
Ngawang Chhepal remembers the transition from Bakhang to the stone and wood homes that dominate Kurima today. As Nepal developed and travel became easier, Sherpas left their villages and were inspired by the infrastructure they saw.
But it was tourism that brought the biggest change.
Sherpas joined the tourism industry in 1953 when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa were the first to summit Everest.
Ngawang Chhepal pours tea into two cups and places them on one of the wooden tables that line his greeting room. In Sherpa culture, it is customary to welcome people with tea or local wine. The cups used must be un-chipped or it is considered an insult and bad luck.
He smiles and gestures towards the tea.
"After tourism was introduced, [Sherpa] people had … luxurious lives by comparison," he says. "People climbed mountains … and most of them got employment."
And as the number of travellers visiting Nepal grew, the word Sherpa became misinterpreted, says Sherpa and Buddhist Lama, Ang Dawa Sherpa. People misunderstood the true meaning.
"Sherpa means the people who live in the Eastern part," he says. "When Edmund Hillary climbed Mount Everest, 'Sherpa' became famous all over the world and people misunderstood that it meant porter."
Tourism has led to a loss of culture in many Sherpa settlements catering to travellers. But others, far from the tourist trail, have maintained their culture while benefiting financially from the industry.
Kurima is one such place.
The village is quiet and peaceful, a whole day's drive and four hours hike from Kathmandu city.
It consists of 50 houses scattered across the flank of a hill, each five-to-15 minutes' walk from the next. Thick forest surrounds the village.
Most houses have a greeting room, a shared sleeping room, a smoke-filled kitchen and an outhouse.
Terraces are cut into the hills around the homes and planted with different crops throughout the year. Most households raise a small herd of buffalo that graze by day in the surrounding plains and forest.
Villagers spend their time caring for their crops and animals, or visiting one another to share updates and stories.
Caring for Buddha's 'security guards'
Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, which emerged around the eighth century, is intrinsic to Sherpa identity and daily life in Kurima.
Every morning Sherpas make offerings of food, water and incense to a range of Buddhist deities, says Pemba Sang Sherpa, Chief Lama at Yonam Sang Chholing Monastery in Kurima.
"When we wake up people need tea, we need food … that's the same thing the deities need," Pemba Sang explains, leaning back in his plastic lawn chair and keeping his gaze on the mountains as he speaks.
"Buddha is the founder of Buddhism so he is in the middle and around him there are the deities' statues," he continues. "In simple language, they are like the security guards of Buddha."
Respect for nature is important to the Sherpa's Buddhist faith. They only eat animals that have died of natural causes and every morning, Sherpa ask the gods to forgive them for any sentient beings – ants, flies, spiders — they may have inadvertently killed the day before.
But what really sets the Sherpa's beliefs apart is their faith in the mountains around them.
Unless a mountain has snow on it, Pemba Sang says, it is considered a hill. From those hills, you can see the gods and goddesses — the mountains — which are considered protector deities.
This is particularly significant to the Sherpa people who are famous for their mountaineering skills and spend their lives climbing Nepal's mountains.
Ex-trekking guide Mingma Norbu Sherpa took tourists across the Solukhumbu region and other parts of Nepal for decades until the Gorkha Earthquake of 2015.
"Before we trek we do a puja (prayer) for every member in the team," he says.
"We pray things like 'forgive us if we have done anything bad' and 'let us pass safely through'."
If the weather is clear after the team engages in puja, the mountain gods have given them permission to climb. But if the weather is windy and cloudy, or worse, trekking guides try to take their tourists down from the mountain or cancel their trip.
Keeping safe from the yeti
Then there are the myths and stories attached to the mountains that are passed among Sherpa communities and down through generations.
The legend of the yeti — a terrible holy beast described as a tall human-like figure who eats human brains — originated in the mountains of Solukhumbu.
Some say the yeti were once normal villagers, turned jungle people. Others believe yeti are gods in their own right.
According to one young Sherpa man, Pasang Sherpa, traditional Sherpa houses typically have very short doors and very small windows so that yetis can not fit inside.
Another mountain legend well known among the Sherpa communities of the lower, hilly areas of Solukhumbu is the story of Tenma — a little creature, no bigger than a farming basket, who is feared for luring children from their homes at night.
Tenma holds the children captive in a secret location for 15 days while it teaches them the secrets of shamanism.
"If the child cannot learn, they will kill the child and the child will never return to its home," Tsering Tenji says. "Otherwise, if the child learns everything, over the 15 days the Tenma will give it only jungle food. Then the child returns to its home as a shaman."
Other Sherpa legends are told as songs.
Sarkinee Sherpa, who lives a 45-minute trek from Kurima, says music underpins the Sherpa way of life. There is a song for every occasion and music keeps Sherpa culture and language alive.
Sarkinee closes her eyes and begins to sing.
"The first flower blooms, so let's offer it to the Lama,
The second flower blooms for the monastery management committee,
The third flower is for the parents, the fourth flower is for the brothers,
The fifth flower for the sisters and the sixth flower for neighbours and relatives …"
Can Sherpa culture survive?
But tourism and development are putting Sherpa culture at risk.
Some fear that Sherpa music and myths may soon be lost.
A generation of young people and even entire families are leaving Kurima in search of opportunities in the city.
All across Kurima, cottages lie empty, their terraces crumbling around them.
Pasang is amongst a number of Sherpas hoping to change this.
As a radio journalist, he runs a program in Sherpa language and is president of the community organisation Sherpa Media Group Nepal.
Most young Sherpa people want to learn about their culture, he says, but there are barriers holding them back.
"Their families will spend money on them learning other languages, but they don't promote the Sherpa language and this demotivates the young people," Pasang believes. "And if the parents do not speak it at home, how will they learn?"
Hopefully, Pasang says, if all Sherpas make it a priority to share their culture with one another, the rich history and way of life of this proud ethnic group will survive.
Yet even as tourism is contributing to the breakdown of Sherpa traditions, many Sherpa are proud of their contribution to the industry.
Most of the people the ABC spoke to wanted to be known for their culture, but also for their work as tourism leaders — guides, mountaineers, pioneers.
"The world's tallest mountain is inside the Sherpa community, it is our goddess deity," Ang Dawa says.
"People from all over the world are coming to see it and Sherpa's culture and Sherpa's homeland."
"We're proud of it," he says. "Everyone wants to come and see."
Credits
Words and photographs: Zoe Osborne
Production: Catherine Taylor
