Sir Edmund Hillary, a “second father” to a people whose sacred peak Everest he became the first man to conquer in 1953. The gritty mountain community said the larger-than-life New Zealander will be best remembered for his promotion of Nepal as well as his efforts to give something back to the impoverished villages nestled in the mountains.
“We consider him as a second father,” Zimba Zangbu Sherpa, the vice president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), told AFP.
The NMA held a small condolence ceremony at their headquarters in Kathmandu on Friday, and paid tribute to the man who considered Nepal a second home.
“With the death of Sir Edmund Hillary an era of mountaineering has come to an end,” Prithvi Subba Gurung, Nepal’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation, said at the ceremony.
“He was not only a mountaineer, he was also a great human being who tried to help Nepal,” said Gurung, who placed a white silk scarf on a picture of Sir Edmund.
The son of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, Hillary’s Everest climbing partner, told AFP that the legendary New Zealander’s death would affect many in Nepal.
“Besides the achievement he made climbing with my father, he has done so much more,” said Jamling Tenzing.
Ang Rita Sherpa, the chief administrator of Hillary’s Himalayan Trust that he set up in the 1960s, said many Sherpas have benefited from the New Zealander’s affection for the Solokhumbu region and Nepal.
“Thousands of Sherpas have been educated, and sponsored and gone on to become doctors, pilots, hoteliers and the like. It’s all down to his contributions,” he said.
“Despite what he achieved, he was always very humble and committed. There is no one who can fill his shoes,” added Sherpa, who attended one of Hillary’s schools as a child. Elizabeth Hawley, a legendary Himalayan chronicler and executive officer for Hillary’s Himalayan Trust, said his affection for the Sherpas stemmed from his historic 1953 ascent with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who died in 1986.
Hillary and the Sherpas “took a tremendous liking to each other, and when he came back in 1954 he met with the Sherpas and they asked him to help build a school,” said Hawley.
“He was a very practical man, so he would just get it done,” she said.
After his ascent of the 8,848-meter (29,028-foot) mountain, Hillary continued to visit Nepal almost every year.
“His work changed the life of the whole Sherpa community. Without his work, especially the schools, the Sherpas would be nowhere,” said Zimba Zangbu Sherpa, the mountaineering association vice president.
Hillary’s trust built 27 schools, two hospitals and a dozen health centers in the harsh, mountainous region. He also helped build an airstrip to promote tourism.
“The work that he has done through the Himalayan Trust will continue and we will go on as before,” said Hawley.
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