(TibetanReview.net, Oct18’26) –Apart from focusing on the expedition to conquer Mt Everest for the first time in human history, the Apple TV film Tenzing also turns the lens towards the famed mountaineer Tenzing Norgay’s personal struggles as a Tibetan “outsider” in the Sherpa mountaineering community of Nepal, notes thecinemaholic.com Oct 16.
The film shows that as a child, Tenzing Norgay migrates from his village in Tibet to Nepal, where he grows up amongst the Sherpa community. While he adopts their customs and even marries into the community, some continue to see him as an outsider. One of those people is Pasang Dawa, a Sherpa and mountaineer who seems to harbour a personal grudge against Tenzing, the report said.
To the report’s author Diksha Sundriyal, the question is whether Pasang is based on a real Sherpa and if so why he didn’t like Tenzing.
While Tenzing, growing up with the Sherpas, is treated as a friend and a trustworthy person, there is still some bias about his status in the hierarchy. This is particularly highlighted when he goes to Dawa’s father to ask for her hand in marriage. He is reminded that while he may have lived amongst them, he is not one of them. This sentiment extends into the later years of his life, even after he has established himself as an accomplished mountaineer.
In fact, the first time he goes to the Himalayan Club in Darjeeling, India, hoping to join a team, he is rejected because he is not a Sherpa but a Bhotia (Tibetan). Incidentally, Pasang, a Sherpa, is also there, though he looks very different and has a completely different set of qualifications, the report notes.
Pasang’s disdain increases when Tenzing is chosen as the head Sherpa in the 1953 expedition, and Pasang has to work under him. One of the things he doesn’t like is how Tenzing has managed to carve out a space for himself on the climbing team. To Pasang, he is a non-Sherpa who uses the credentials of being one and reaps the benefits, while real Sherpas like himself have to serve under him.
Of course, he doesn’t know all the things Tenzing does for the sake of his team. It isn’t until much later, when they are only a day or two away from the peak, that Pasang finally starts to respect Tenzing, the report notes.
While it is not known whether the real-life Pasang had similar sentiments for the real Tenzing Norgay, the bias the mountaineer faced for being Tibetan rather than a Sherpa by birth was real, especially in his early years, the report says.
It points out, as shown in the film, that Tenzing did have a lower status in the hierarchy, but eventually, things changed. Over the years, Tenzing proved himself a worthy mountaineer, and his summit of Everest completely rewrote the story of the Sherpa community. He was the first of them to demand a proper place on the climbing team, setting a precedent for others like him. Slowly and steadily, the prejudice held against him dissipated, and now, there is nothing but respect for him in everyone’s hearts, the report concludes.