Punam Phuyal
Mountain Sherpa, the pride of the Himalayan region are important ethnic group of Nepal. They have their own culture, tradition, norms and values.
Literally, Sherpa is derived from two words ‘Shar’-(east) and ‘wa’ (people). Sharwa is the term used to pronounce ‘sherpa’ by the Sherpa themselves. Simply it denotes a group of people who migrated from Eastern Tibet and settled in Nepal before the two regions became separate countries. The Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet existed from the 7th to 9Th centuries AD and the current borders of Tibet were formed in the 8th century.
Sherpa itself is a language. Sherpa:- mountain-dwelling people of Nepal, Sikkim state, India, Tibet (china), and Bhutan speak this language. Most of the Sherpa lives in the eastern region of Nepal covering the population of 112946 i.e. 0.42% of total population (according to census 2011). They live mostly in Solu-Khumbu district of the Sagarmatha zone. However, some of them live in the colonies of Kathmandu, the city of Darjeeling, and in Indian hill towns.
Sherpa are famous for their culture and behavior. The dress they wear are unique than other ethnic group of Nepal. They wear thick, coarse wrap around robe named Bakhu and woolen boots called Docha. The male and female wear bakhu and docha with various colour and design which represents Himalayas citizen of Nepal.
Buddhism is the main religion of Sherpa marked by Sumptuous offerings melodious chanting and joy. They celebrate Lhosar as the main festival with means new year which falls on the month of February. During the celebration of Loshar, they visit major Buddhist monasteries and stupas like Swoyambhunath and Boudhnath. They decorate all cultural places with prayer flag(lunga) and perform cultural dance –drama known as ‘cham’ .
Sherpa are one of the most powerful and superhuman mountain climbers. Different researches show that they are extremely efficient at producing energy even in the scarcity of atmospheric oxygen. A different study shows that They have thicker blood with more red blood cell(RBC)than normal people(low landers) which prevent them from altitude sickness.
Trekon Mountain is the major attraction of employment for Sherpa. Their physical structure (i.e. can adopt on low atmosphere oxygen)powerful body, good behavior, respect, and skill of climbing attracts most of the tourist. As tourism is Nepal’s largest industry as well as a major source of foreign revenue. So, Sherpas are important indigenous people for their culture habits,s and habitat, well renowned as super ‘Human’ on the basis of climbing mountains and adaptation on high altitudes.
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