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The Approach March
part 4 | back to part 3
Namche Bazaar
Namche Bazaar sits within the curve of a perfectly formed Himalayan cirque, its
lodges nestled into the mountainside facing the daunting rock face of the
Himalayan peak, Kwangde. Click here for an audio walk through Namche (RealAudio 83K). The
largest village in the Khumbu, Namche has shops, lodges, a bank, and even a
dentist's office. We awake the next morning to crowing roosters and the
beating drums of a nearby religious ceremony. Clouds roll swiftly over the
mountains as the team wolfs down a breakfast of omelets and porridge to fuel up
for the steep, but brief, ascent to the village of Khumjung. Khumjung is in
the heart of the Khumbu, which is the home of the Sherpas, an ethnic group that
came from Tibet over 400 years ago and settled the flanks of Everest's south
slopes. Khumjung, which has the only school in the valley, is a traditional
Sherpa village. Its economy is based on potatoes, barley, yak husbandry, and
now, trekking.
Khumjung
The snow falls hard for 5 hours, so the film crew uses the time to shoot
indoors in the Khumjung Gompa (monastery) with Jamling. This sequence is meant
to set Jamling in his culture and homeland so the audience can gain a sense of
where he's from and who he is. Having grown up in the aura of his father's
accomplishments and fame, Jamling is suspended gracefully between two worlds,
that of the Sherpa and the West. He has
finally returned home to Darjeeling, after living in the U.S. for 11 years, to head up his father's trekking and
climbing business and to settle down with his Tibetan wife and child. "It's
nice being the son of a famous person, but I keep a low profile as much as
possible, you know, do my own thing. I'm just another person. I didn't climb
the mountain, he did." Click here to hear Jamling talk about Sherpas (RealAudio). Being
Sherpa and also a climber on the expedition, Jamling feels the poignancy of his
position: "I think my father's concern was that he didn't want me to go up
(Everest) getting paid to carry a load. He always said 'Don't disgrace our
name by going as a Sherpa ..... wait, you'll get your funding one day and it'll
happen.'"
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