The Khumbu 

‘If Sir Edmund Hillary had not founded the school,
we would still be just following behind our yaks’.

--Comment by a Sherpa on the 40th anniversary of the Khumjung School.

The People.

‘Sherpa’  means ‘easterner’. The Sherpas originated from eastern Tibet. They started to settle in the Khumbu area about 600 years ago. However, not all Sherpas live in Khumbu, but are also found through out Nepal and in India, Bhutan and Tibet. These days many Sherpas live in Kathmandu. Traditionally they live in sparsely populated areas of the high Himalayas and share many cultural links with Tibet including their language, religion, dress, architecture and agricultural practices. Kathmandu was, until recently, a difficult long journey and to a place where the culture and climate are very different. In fact, Sherpas make up only about 1% of the predominantly Hindu population of Nepal. It is estimated that there are about 250,000 people who call themselves Sherpas, around 3000 live in Khumbu and many more live in the villages in the southern part of the district known as Solo.

The High Lands.

Nepal has one of the most diversified environments in the world, ranging from the hot dusty Indian plains to the tops of the Himalayas. Khumbu is over 11,000 sq. kilometers and covers altitudes from 2800 metres to some of the highest mountains in the world. More than 95 % of this region is above 4000m. Powerful forces have created Khumbu and the awesome mountain range that surrounds it. For over 50 million years, the Indian continental plate ground up against southern Asia, and then finally slipped beneath it. The resulting uplift of the Asian plate is what created the Himalayas, including Mount Everest. This continental collision continues today, and India is pushing 18mm towards Tibet each year resulting in the Himalayas rising upwards by 5mm annually. Periodic earthquakes and landslides are a result of the incredible changes being wrought in the Himalayas.

The Wind and Weather.

The climate varies from temperate to arctic depending on altitude and aspect. Khumbu is somewhat protected from the worst extremes by a surrounding wall of mountainous ridges. This gives it its hidden valley quality and creates partial rain shadow conditions that keep out the worst of the torrential monsoon rains coming up from India and the icy winds that blow across the Tibetan plateau from the north. The climate also reflects its relatively low latitude; it is further south than Cairo, still in the winter temperatures drop well below freezing. Thus, Khumbu has a relatively low snowfall though avalanches are still a hazard and people and livestock are sometimes lost to storms. The climate varies considerably. In monsoon, it rains heavily and temperatures rise up to 20 degree Celsius. In winter, the climate can be extremely hard, dropping below minus 20 degrees and snowfall is frequent.

Forests and Flowers.

Most of Khumbu is high alpine country, an area of ice, alpine tundra and lichen. The snow line is at 6000m on southern slopes and 5800m on northern aspects. Only 2 % of Khumbu is forested. The lower valleys are conifer country; higher up are fir, pine, birch, rhododendron and juniper, but the trees thin out and growth rate slows down. In thirty years, a juniper will only grow 15 cm, only half a centimetre a year. For this reason the cutting of juniper by lodges for tourist related activities is unsustainable. Above 4000m come the highly scented dwarf rhododendrons, alpine shrubs, herbs and grasses. It is in the clean pristine alpine meadows that most of the herbs used in Tibetan medicine grow.

Parks and Protection.

The Sagarmatha National Park was created in 1976 and a few years later it was listed as the World Heritage List because of its  ‘Exceptional beauty’ and as a place where ‘natural and cultural elements are found in exceptional combinations’. In the east is the more recently created Makaklu-Barun Conservation area and to the north, the huge Qomolangma Reserve in Tibet. Within this vast area are some rare and protected animals which the Parks are trying to preserve. Sadly, however, poaching is still a threat and some illegal cutting of forest resources continues.

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