Nepal is one of the most geographically diverse countries on earth and this diversity is also reflected in the people who live here. Nepal displays an unusually wide variety of religious, ethnic, social and linguistic groups. One of the most renouwned ethnic groups of Nepal is the Sherpa. These Robust and cheerfull people in habit the mountainous regions of the Khumbu, Solu, Pharak, Helambu Valley and Taplejung in western Nepal . The Sherpas of the Khumbu inhabit the high valleys and live under the southern shadow of Mount Everest.

Sherpa’s are Buddhists people by nature and display a unique culture of their own when compared to the other ethnic minority groups that share the same region. Any visitor to the Khumbu will agree that the Sherpa people have a dimension of their own, even if there language, dress and social life resmebles that of others. All it takes is one warm smile from a shy Sherpa for you to notice this. The meaning of the word Sherpa is easterner or, in its orginanal pronunciation, Sharwa,”people from the east”, Shar meaning East and Wa meaning people. They orginally migrated from the Western Tibetan province of Kham into the Solu-Khumbu region

The range of the Sherpa people covers a huge area of mountainous land that creates the frontier border with Tibet, but suprisingly the number of Sherpa people in Nepal is low, for instance, there are fewer than 5,000 Sherpa people living in the Khumbu area.

By nature the Sherpa’s are small scale farming people, living off the land and the nomadic grazing of Yaks. They spend the cold season in the villages farming the fertile land around their houses, and then in the spring time they head up to the high pastures with their Yak herds. To suppliment their income, they traded Grain from the lowlands with Tibet for salt and wool.

During the 1950’s came the invasion of westerners into the Khumbu region, Mountaineers and explorers. This event was a life time alterantion into the ways of the Sherpa. Sturdy men where contracted into expedition parties to help porter goods and guide people along mountain routes. At this time also trade routes with Tibet where for the most part closed under the control of the Chinese, so this influx of westerners was of a great benfit to the livelihood of the Sherpa’s.

After the first sussessfull ascent of mount Everest in 1953, the strenght and mountain climbing ablities of this ethnic group became well know and now it’s not possible to attempt a mountain climb with out the help of these cheerful and robust mountain people. Any visit to the Khumbu is not complete until you take some time to get to know the Sherpa people who inhabit the region.