Tenzing Norgay Biography: Tenzing Norgay (1914-1986) was a Sherpa mountaineer from Nepal and India. In May 1953, he was one of the first two people to ascend Mount Everest, along with Sir Edmund Hilary. After ascending Mount Everest, he became a well-known ambassador for the Sherpa people and served as an ambassador and tour guide.
Tenzing Norgay Biography
Early Years
Norgay was born in the mountainous Nepalese district of Khumbu. The fact that his mother gave birth while making a pilgrimage to Ghang Lha in eastern Nepal was regarded as a good omen. According to Norgay, his parents were Tibetan, and according to some accounts of his childhood, he was born in Tibet before relocating to Nepal. His birth date was not recorded in writing, but he was born in late May 1914. His original name was Namgyal Wangdi, but the chief Lama of Rongbuk Monastery (located in the shadows of Everest) suggested Tenzing Norgay, which roughly translates to “wealthy-fortunate-religious-follower.” Tenzing felt favour and good fortune throughout his existence.
His early life was moulded by the arduous and simple Sherpa lifestyle. His father was a Tibetan yak header who laboured in harsh conditions year-round, and he expected Tenzing to assist him. Tenzing was the eleventh of thirteen children; many of his siblings passed away at a tender age. He was sent to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Khumu, Nepal, for a brief period, but he decided that the monastic life was not for him. At the age of 13, he secretly travelled to Kathmandu in the hopes of gaining more opportunities in the future. He never received a formal education and remained illiterate throughout his entire existence (though he became fluent in multiple languages).
Career
At the age of 19, Tenzing Norgay relocated to Darjeeling, India, where there was a substantial Sherpa population. There, British Everest expedition commander Eric Shipton spotted him and employed him as a high-altitude porter for a 1935 reconnaissance of the mountain’s northern (Tibetan) face. Tenzing served as a porter for two additional British expeditions on the northern side in the 1930s, but the 13th Dalai Lama closed this route to westerners in 1945.
Tenzing, along with Canadian mountaineer Earl Denman and Ange Dawa Sherpa, snuck across the Tibetan frontier in 1947 to attempt Everest again. A ferocious snowstorm forced them to retreat at approximately 6700 metres (22,000 feet).
Queen Elizabeth II knighted Tenzing Norgay in 1957, but he received only the British Empire Medal. In 1957, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru supported his efforts to train boys and girls in South Asia in mountaineering techniques and to provide scholarships for their education. After the death of his first wife, he married two more women, and at the age of 61, King Jigme Singje Wangchuck chose him to guide the first foreign tourists permitted into the Kingdom of Bhutan. His son Jamling Tenzing Norgay now manages Tenzing Norgay Adventures, a trekking enterprise he founded three years later. On May 9, 1986, at the age of 71, he passed away due to either a cerebral haemorrhage or a bronchial condition, according to various sources.
Awards
In 1938, he was awarded the Tiger Medal by the Himalayan Club for his high-altitude activities. In 1953, Queen Elizabeth II authorised the presentation of the George Medal and the Coronation Medal to him. His grandson Tashi Tenzing stated in 2013 that he should have been knighted. He was awarded the Order of the Star of Nepal, 1st Class (Supradipta-Manyabara-Nepal-Tara) by King Tribhuvan of Nepal in 1953. In 1959, the Indian government presented him with the Padma Bhushan and the Indian Mountaineering Foundation awarded him its gold medal.
The Soviet Union bestowed Norgay the honorary title “Merited Master of Sport of the USSR” in 1963. In September 2013, the Government of Nepal proposed naming a mountain in Nepal with the name Tenzing Peak in his tribute. In July 2015, the 3.4-kilometer-high (11,000-foot-high) mountain range on Pluto known as Tenzing Montes was named.
Family
Tenzing had three marriages. In 1944, his first wife, Dawa Phuti, died at a tender age. With her, he had three children: Nima Dorje, who died at the age of four; Pem Pem, whose son Tashi Tenzing ascended Mount Everest; and Nima, who married a Filipino graphic designer, Noli Galang. His second marriage was Ang Lahmu, his first wife’s cousin. They were childless, but she was the stepmother of his daughters. As permitted by Sherpa custom, he married his third wife, Dakku. While his second wife was still alive, and had sons Jamling and Norbu with her. His other relatives include the Everest expedition participants Nawang Gombu and Topgay, who were his nephews.
Death
Norgay died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 9 May 1986 in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India, at the age of 71. His remains were cremated at his preferred location, the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. His widow Dakku died in 1992.
Facts
- Early in the 1930s, he relocated to Darjeeling (now Darjiling), where he worked as a trekking porter.
- Prior to the 1953 Everest expedition, he made numerous unsuccessful attempts to reach the summit, including in 1935 with Eric Shipton, leader of the ‘Reconaissance Expedition,’ in 1936 with John Morris, and with Canadian-born Earl Denman. Who entered Tibet illegally but was forced to abandon his attempt at 6,700 metres altitude due to a severe storm.
- In 1952, he joined the “Swiss Mountain Expedition,” which made two attempts to reach the summit, once in the spring and again in the autumn. Raymond Lambert and Tenzing Norgay were able to reach 28,199 feet (8,595 metres) in the spring and 26,575 feet (8,100 metres) in the autumn.
- He and Edmund Hillary were the first to successfully reach the summit on May 29, 1953. The expedition included more than 400 individuals, 362 porters, and 20 porters. During the journey, Hillary nearly perished after stumbling into a crevasse, but Tenzing’s heroics saved her life.
- In reality, there is no photograph of Edmund Hillary ascending Mount Everest because Tenzing had never used a camera before.
- In 1954, Norgay became the institute’s first Director of Field Training in Darjeeling.
- In 1978, he established Tenzing Norgay Excursions, a company that offers trekking excursions in the Himalayas. His son, Jamling Tenzing Norgay, who also scaled Everest in 1996, is now in charge of the expedition.
- Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the George Medal and the ‘Queen Elizabeth Coronation Medal’
- In 1953, King Tribhuvan of Nepal awarded him the Order of Star of Nepal (OSN).
- He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 1959.
- In January 2008, Nepal’s Lukla Airport has renamed Tenzing-Hillary Airport in their tribute.
- There is a memorial statue of Tenzing Norgay in Darjeeling.
