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Nepal refuses to honour Tenzing Norgay
London, Jan 19: Even fifty years after Tenzing Norgay attained glory by conquering Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary, Nepalese government refuses to honour him posthumously as he had subsequently acquired Indian citizenship.
London, Jan 19: Even fifty years after Tenzing Norgay attained glory by conquering Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary, Nepalese government refuses to honour him posthumously as he had subsequently acquired Indian citizenship.
"There is a problem. Declaring him a national hero is
difficult," Ganesh Karki, an official at Nepal's tourism
ministry, told 'the observer'.
Campaigners led by the 'nepal mountaineering association' want Tenzing to be made a "Rastriya Vibhuti" - an accolade awarded to the Himalayan kingdom's elite dead. Previous recipients include Lord Buddha, who was born in the border town of Lumbini. But Nepal has so far refused to grant the Sherpa the honour although Tenzing planted a nepalese flag on Everest's summit, arguing that he spent most of his life in India and even acquired an Indian citizenship.
Tenzing, who grew up in Nepal tending his father's yak herds on a high mountain pass below Everest, migrated to India in his teens. He found work as a porter on several pioneering pre-war British expeditions to the Himalayas in the tea-growing eastern hill station of Darjeeling.
After he and Hillary reached the summit on may 29, 1953, government in Kathmandu hailed Tenzing's success as its own, and swiftly awarded him 'Nepal Tara' medal (star of Nepal). Shortly afterwards, however, Tenzing accepted an Indian passport from the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, so that he could travel to England. Tenzing, who later ran a successful mountaineering school in Darjeeling, died there in 1986.
Bureau Report
Campaigners led by the 'nepal mountaineering association' want Tenzing to be made a "Rastriya Vibhuti" - an accolade awarded to the Himalayan kingdom's elite dead. Previous recipients include Lord Buddha, who was born in the border town of Lumbini. But Nepal has so far refused to grant the Sherpa the honour although Tenzing planted a nepalese flag on Everest's summit, arguing that he spent most of his life in India and even acquired an Indian citizenship.
Tenzing, who grew up in Nepal tending his father's yak herds on a high mountain pass below Everest, migrated to India in his teens. He found work as a porter on several pioneering pre-war British expeditions to the Himalayas in the tea-growing eastern hill station of Darjeeling.
After he and Hillary reached the summit on may 29, 1953, government in Kathmandu hailed Tenzing's success as its own, and swiftly awarded him 'Nepal Tara' medal (star of Nepal). Shortly afterwards, however, Tenzing accepted an Indian passport from the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, so that he could travel to England. Tenzing, who later ran a successful mountaineering school in Darjeeling, died there in 1986.
Bureau Report