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Nepal on top of the
world
By Dhruba Adhikary
KATHMANDU - The world's highest mountain is
Nepal's prized possession, and a part of her identity.
To Buddhists, this country in the Himalaya was the
birthplace of the messenger of peace; and, ironically,
to the people in the war business in Britain, India and
elsewhere, this place is the homeland of their legendary
Gurkhas.
Nepalis call the 8,848-meter high
snow-capped mountain Sagarmatha, the forehead on the
sky, while the rest of the world has recognized it as
Everest since 1865 when it was named after the British
surveyor who measured its height, 29,028 feet. To the
people in Tibet, this highest point on earth has
remained Qomolungma, the goddess mother of earth, though
the rulers in China have given it a different variant,
Zhumulangma.
But climbers are not bothered by
such disputes over nomenclature. They continue to be
fascinated by the beauty of this and the country's other
mountains, and are thankful for the endless chances of
adventure that they provide.
Nepal's Ministry of
Tourism has issued permits for 25 expeditions to Everest
this year, allowing 201 individuals to apply their
mountaineering skills to the supreme challenge that
Everest offers. And already, several teams, including
Tibetans, Chinese, Indians and Japanese (the latter team
included the oldest climber ever to reach the top, aged
70) , have set their feet on the roof of the world. The
successful ones are expected to return to the capital
Kathmandu to take part in a week of celebrations being
hosted to commemorate the first ascent on Everest 50
years ago on May 29, 1953.
Edmund Hillary of New
Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal were the
first summiteers from the British expedition led by John
Hunt. Release of the news about that historic ascent was
deliberately delayed so that it could reach London on
the eve of Queen Elizabeth's coronation on June 2.
Tenzing Norgay passed away in 1986, while Sir
Edmund Hillary, 83, is traveling the world to mark the
anniversary before going to Nepal. The president of the
Nepal Mountaineering Association, Ang Tshering Sherpa,
is trying to bring three surviving Sherpas of the
expedition of the first ascent from the Everest region
to be with Hillary and others in Kathmandu.
"I
love the great cold mountains of the Himalaya - but it's
the Sherpas that surround them with warmth and
friendship," said Sir Edmund at the launching of the
book Sagarmatha in 1992. That perhaps is the
reason why the acclaimed mountaineer has preferred Nepal
to the United Kingdom for taking part in events
organized to mark the occasion.
Hillary's
affection for Sherpas has been matched by the charity
works his Himalayan Trust has been doing in the villages
of the Everest region for the past several years. Of
over 1,200 successful Everest summiteers, nearly 500
(200 of them foreigners) are expected to be in Kathmandu
over the next week.
This is the first such
jamboree of its kind and and it has taken on national
importance. Even agitating political parties have
decided to halt their anti-king demonstrations for a
full week while Maoists, who are currently engaged in
peace talks, are also unlikely to sabotage the tourism
itinerary approved for the last week of May.
Programs in Kathmandu include a public
felicitation of renowned climbers such as Hillary, Junko
Tabei, first woman to reach the top of the world (1975),
Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb Everest
without oxygen cylinders (1978) and Appa Sherpa, who has
been to the top 12 times.
A horse-drawn carriage
will take the famous mountaineers through the streets of
Kathmandu. "The idea is to recreate the enthusiastic
scenes of 1953," said Kuber Sharma, Nepal's tourism
minister. According to Sharma, the gala dinner scheduled
for May 29 will be graced by King Gyanenedra.
Mountaineers are also to be honored with gifts and
souvenirs.
A visit to the mountaineering
memorial park in Kakani, on the northern outskirts of
the bowl-shaped Kathmandu valley, is also listed on the
official program. The government has released a modest
budget, said an official, to organize some of the
activities drawn for the Golden jubilee. All Everest
summiteers will be given fee-free visas, together with
an undertaking to give them a 50 percent discount on
visa fees when they visit Nepal for non-mountaineering
purposes.
Western alpine experts often identify
Everest as the "mountain without mercy" in view of the
number of lives lost there. According to Elizabeth
Hawley, a Kathmandu-based US chronicler of
mountaineering activities in Nepal, around 175 people
have lost their lives trying reach the mountain's
summit. But Everest still remains every climber's dream.
Nepali authorities maintain that while government as
well as non-government agencies do make efforts to
rescue climbers from bad weather and other unforeseen
emergencies, it needs to be understood that some of the
deaths in Everest are inevitable, and unavoidable.
And mountaineers themselves are aware of the
element of risk involved in such expeditions. In May
1996, eight climbers lost their lives when a freak
blizzard pummeled the mountain with shrieking winds and
blinding snow. The Nepal government was criticized for
not doing enough for climbers' safety.
Although
China has reservations about the naming of the world's
highest mountain, authorities in Beijing, however, do
recognize the fact that the first ascent to the peak
took place 50 years ago. CCTV, the Chinese television
network, began telling its audience worldwide since May
16 that the final movements of a Chinese expedition
members to Qomolangma from the Tibetan side would be
telecast live - a technological feat for CCTV.
While reporting this event, the CCTV
specifically mentioned that the expedition was launched
to commemorate the human achievement made in 1953. Not
only that, China is one of the 40 countries from where
climbers are coming to Kathmandu to be a part of the
jamboree for mountaineers.
Last year, Nepal's
exchequer collected 140 million rupees (US$3 million) as
direct revenue from the issuance of permits to climbers
planning to scale peaks of varying altitudes. This year,
which is a special year, the figures are expected to go
up substantially. The royalty rates for Everest are
obviously higher than for any other Himalayan peaks. It
is $70,000 for a team of seven persons. A team is
allowed to take up to five additional persons by paying
$10,000 each.
"Money received in the form of
royalties is significant," said Shankar Koirala, a
senior official in the Ministry of Tourism, "but what is
more important is the money the mountaineers [and
trekkers] spend while they stay in Nepal." One needs to
multiply, he claimed, the royalty figures by the digit
seven to get an idea of total gains accrued through
employment and a variety of taxes and fees.
Commercialization of mountaineering, especially
of Everest, has been a critical issue for some time.
Concerns expressed by personalities such as Hillary are
genuine and are usually based on reports of pollution
and accidents. "Everest has become a junk heap
overloaded with multitudes of expeditions and their
refuge," said Hillary, a former New Zealand ambassador
to Nepal, in 1996. "I like to think of Everest as a
great mountaineering challenge," The Guardian newspaper
quoted him as saying as recently as March this year. A
number of companies take inexperienced climbers to the
top for fees ranging up to $50,000 per person.
Concerns for the cleanliness of mountains are
understandable, said Koirala, adding that his ministry
has made arrangements for cleaning campaigns at regular
intervals. Besides, expedition members are required to
make sure that they do not leave behind used items such
as bottles, boxes and cylinders. Some of the criticism
on so-called commercialization is related to royalties,
which appear exorbitant when compared to the rates
offered for the highest peak on the Chinese [Tibetan]
side. "The crucial thing is that mountaineers themselves
are not satisfied till they scale Everest from the
southern face," said Koirala, alluding to the
recognition attached to the feat accomplished from the
Nepali side.
One strong contention in favor of
keeping mountains open to visitors is based on the
assumption that like rivers and forests, snow-clad
mountains are Nepal's renewable resources. "These
resources should be put to use and converted into a
perennial source of income and economic activities,"
said Madhab Prasad Khanal, a retired government official
who has had experience of working with the tourism
ministry. Let ecological balance be maintained, and let
there be a reliable arrangement for pollution control,
Khanal added as a caveat.
But there are people
who do not share Khanal's views. "I'm opposed to the
policy of royalties-based commercialization of
mountains," said Tek Chandra Pokharel, a prominent
personality in the tourism business. Nepal, he argued,
has set a bad precedent, which is now being adopted by
countries like India and Pakistan.
With the
adoption of a liberal policy in recent years, the
tourism ministry has opened 276 peaks to climbers and
trekkers. ( 33 of them of up to 6,600 meters high are
handled by the Nepal Mountaineering Association). But
only about 30 mountains are chosen by potential climbers
for their activities.
Mountaineering and
trekking are just one segment of tourism, though. "Our
belief is that next week's mega-event will help increase
the number of affluent Western tourists willing to visit
and re-visit Nepal for rest and recreation purposes,"
said Tek Bahadur Dangi, chief executive officer of the
Nepal Tourism Board, a government sector agency
responsible for promoting tourism.
(Copyright
2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved.
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