WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: Sherpas: Warm, Friendly Living 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:03.960 Happy weekend, everybody. This is Chuck here bringing you my 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:06.800 selection for this Stuff you Should Know Select episode on 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:11.080 this fine Saturday. This one is from April eleven, Sherpas 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.760 colon Warm Friendly Living, and I know for a fact 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:16.360 Josh came up with that title because I thought it 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.040 was very fun and it really kind of embodied what 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.520 sherpas are all about. Um. You know, sherpas will lead 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.840 you up Everest or maybe some other mountain range in 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.800 the area. And the more we dug into Sherpas, the 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.000 more we realize just what um, warm, hospitable, amazing people 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.360 they are. And uh, it's really easy to overlook the 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:41.720 sherpa because you will often hear about the the wealthy 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.720 climber of Everest, uh, and not much about the sherpa 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.000 that really got them there. So this was our bid 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.040 to shine little light on the Sherpa. So here we 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:57.920 go with Sherpa's Warm Friendly Living. Welcome to Stuff you 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:05.440 Should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.440 welcome to the Sherpa. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.600 Did I just say Sherpa? No, he said welcome to 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:13.160 the podcast. What would you say, Welcome to the sharp 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.479 because the Sherpa is a nation of people and also 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:20.759 a last name and also an occupation. Yeah, that's pretty good. Well, 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:26.360 that's the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:33.200 as Charles W. Chuck Bryant didn't ignore Gay Bryant. Yeah, yeah, Chuck, 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:37.880 we're talking about sherp today. Yeah. Is it Sharpa or 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.080 sharp I have no idea because I see both in 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:43.280 this article. I do as well. All right, let's find out, 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.200 shall we? If everyone will just hold on a second, 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.640 are you actually looking this up? Chuck? Most people do 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:54.440 this before there hit podcast. Have you have you ever 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:56.800 seen Well, I'm sure this won't make it in. You 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.760 never know, it'll never make it in. Have you ever 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:02.480 seen in Um Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.560 The first one? That was not the first one? Yes, 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:07.520 it was that Raiders the Lost Ark was first, That's 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:09.360 what I meant. I'm sorry, Temple of Doom was too. 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.480 What was I thinking? I don't know. You've seen Raters 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.640 of the Lost Ark? Yeah, okay, scores of times. So 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.160 you know when he find he goes to meet Marian 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.600 for the first time after like ten years after jilting her. Yes, 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:27.440 the drinking scene. Yes, the guy, the huge guy that 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.760 Marian is drinking with or I guess in a drinking 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.800 contest with. It's like they kept hearing me say chuck 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:39.040 over and over again. Right, Um, that my friend was Shirpa, 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:43.680 was it? I'm pretty sure he looked Mongolian to me. No, 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.359 they were definitely in like Nepal. Okay, yeah, it's it, 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:49.920 even said Nepaul. Remember he flies in the plane a 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:53.240 poop and it's like redline takes him to Nepal. Yeah, 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.519 all right, so let's call him a sharpa. So shir 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.560 Buzz is plural of Serpa. That's what I thought. I 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:05.399 thought so too. Um. The Sherpa people are actually pretty fascinating. 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.480 They're pretty isolated, um. And they haven't been where they are, 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.960 which is the base of Mount Everest in the um 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:19.760 Solu Kumboo area region of Nepal, for more than actually 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.720 about five years, and when they arrived in the Solo 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.400 Cumboo region, they found it uninhabited. And the reason why 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.040 is because the Sherpas are pretty much the only people 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:34.680 on the planet besides maybe Ethiopian Highlanders or Peruvians in 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.200 the Andes who could conceivably live in this area because 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.800 again it's at the foot of Mount Everest. Yes, and 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.800 we recorded a podcast on Tibetans and altitude sickness, so 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.320 if you want to know all about that, refer to 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:52.400 that podcast. But Josh, you're right. They migrated from Tibet 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.480 from the province of Calm to the northeast corner of 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.080 Nepal around the sixteenth century because of warfare. Yeah, and 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.480 as I understand, they're very peaceful people. Oh very so 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.360 they would have been fleeing warfare, I would say, so, yeah, 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:14.800 not running toward it right headlong. So, um, they migrated there. 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.960 There was a lot more like forest and wood and 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.359 fuel for fuel at the time, which is good. And 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.359 they could grow wheat and buckwheat at the time, and 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:25.640 that's about all I could grow. But that was enough. 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.719 Right later on, potatoes really changed the way they do 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.719 farming because they grow a lot of potatoes now. Yeah, 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.599 the I think the potato was introduced in the mid 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:39.680 nineteenth century and that kind of changed everything. Eighty I'm sorry, um, 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.200 but if you think about it this, these people, well, 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.240 when they first arrived in the area, they moved to 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:51.640 um Uh the Kumbo Valley, which is higher up actually 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.559 than Um the Solu area, and it's about um between 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:58.719 eleven thousand and thirteen thousand feet and they're like, this 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.360 is a little too high. Everybody's a little sick. So 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.200 we're gonna move a little further down to the Soleu region. 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:10.279 Between six it's still extremely high. Um, it's still extremely rocky. 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:13.279 And they whip this part of the Himalayas into shape. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:18.280 They created um terraced farm fields. Guatemala. Baby, remember that. Yeah, 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.560 down a slope you can create you can farm on 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.480 the side of a mountain. People do, but um, think 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:26.640 about this, I mean, like, how did they figure that out? 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.520 I'm very curious. Well, I mean it's you know, it's 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.479 not rocket science. You need flat land. And if you 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.000 have a steep side of a mountain and you cut 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.480 into that, you can create a series of steps, essentially, 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.800 which is flat land. Cherris in their laughing, Yeah, I 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:44.520 would have been in trouble. Cherrys, like, I'd be in 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.240 the Guadamala three times. I know all about step irrigation, 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.320 and then I had to do all this. I would 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.520 have been like, man, I wish you were flat around here. 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.600 I guess I'll just sit here until I die. Um, 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.320 so you'd oh, I'd be terrible at it. One of 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.560 the reasons why I be terrible at it is because 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:07.720 I will get in my car to drive fiet from say, 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.440 store to store. Do you do that? Take over there 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.359 at the Edgewood, like you'll got a target and then 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:15.719 you'll drive to Kroger. I haven't been there in a while, 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:21.760 but I have. I have. Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean, like, yeah, 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.000 I'll walk. I walk more now than I ever had before. 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.160 My entire defending like the weather or what's going on, 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.720 definitely depends on whether it depends on my schedule. Very 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:30.360 often I get that if I'm in a hurry, I 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:32.559 might do that, right. I would make a terrible strip 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.760 of though, because they don't have wheeled anything. They're a 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:41.440 terrible strippers. I would make both terrible. Okay, yeah, well 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:45.760 I know Aaron Cooper is going to make this exactly. Um, yes, 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.440 as I just said, I think I think it bears reiterating, Um, 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:53.760 Mr joke guy, there are no wheeled anything's there. There's 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:59.240 no cars, there's no wheelbarrows. Yeah, they don't even use wheelbarrows, 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.560 which now we've reached another reason I would be a 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.520 terrible shirt but they have to carry everything. I can 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.080 barely carry a thing a dog food out of the 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.600 grocery store to my car. And that's like with a 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:16.240 car involved, which has wheels, which they don't have in 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.040 the Solukumboo region. That's right. They carry everything, Josh, and 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.360 they use uh we actually saw this in Guatemala to 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:29.000 the plumb line. Trumpline, trump line. Yeah, it's home line 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.400 is a little different. What they'll do is they'll, let's say, 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.440 get a big load of firewood and they'll they'll they'll 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.240 wrap it up in in in a spank it on 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.320 the bottom, spanking on the bottom. They'll wrap it up 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:42.680 and so they can wear it on their back and 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.760 a big bundle and then attached to the top of 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:47.720 of you know, let's say they lay it in like 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.320 a hammock and fold that over a hammock like thing, 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.520 and then that is attached to a band that you know, 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.720 it's like a headband, and so it goes around their 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:58.320 head and it takes a lot of the weight off 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.320 their back. And we saw these at them, all the 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:02.880 dudes walking up the road, and I thought, man, look 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.840 at that. That's like ancient engineering still in practice and 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:09.120 you're like, man, I want to I gotta do more 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:10.640 of that, And you got back here and you're like, 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:16.920 we're cheeseburger and my Jan Sport backpack. Anybody who's ever 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.240 seen the front cover of um led Zeppelin four is 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.800 familiar with this concept as well. Was he wearing one 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.520 of those? He should have been if he wasn't, because 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:29.600 that's a big old bundle of sticks that guys carrying. 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.760 There was a bustle in his head. Draw honeyway. So 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:39.120 um Sherpas can whip a mountain into farmland. They can 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.760 live on buck wheat and then several hundred years without 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:47.319 the potato, and then the potato and yak yack milk 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:52.600 and yack meat. Right. Yea. They walk everywhere, but they 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:58.360 carry things everywhere. Um with the as they and they 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:02.800 they are basically a mountain, their mountain folk. They have. 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.880 They speak a Tibetan dialect that's virtually their own. They 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.719 don't have a written language, no written language. Until the 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:15.000 nineteen sixties, there is no formalized education. Um. They just lived. 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.120 They carved a very meager existence out for themselves, and 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.520 thanks to a dude named Sir Edmund Hillary, they now 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.360 have the foundation that he set up. And we'll get 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.040 to Edmund Hillary in a second, but everyone, come on, 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:31.120 you know who he is. He's the first man to 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.439 us and everest with Tin signor gay Serpa to summit 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.199 to summit. What I say, I send? Yeah, I mean, 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:39.640 what's this? You gotta get to the top, right or else? What? 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.640 He just blew sixty five grand that's about how much 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.840 it cost. So through his foundation in later years, he 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:51.240 he became to love the uh peaceful Buddhist of of 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:53.440 the Sherpa people there, and so he's like, you know, 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:55.320 and a set of foundation, we're gonna do things like 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.720 bring some schools, bring some hospitals, give these kids access 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.640 to healthcare, things like that. So he did that and 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.400 that helped a lot, although nowadays, you know, the schools 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:10.079 aren't in great shape evidently. Uh it's kind of hard 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:14.080 to get there. So um, they're they're doing what they can. Right. 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:15.920 You can take the folk out of the mountain, but 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:17.520 you can't take the mountain out of the folk, you 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:19.840 know what I mean? That's right. Uh. They are very friendly, 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:26.680 very peaceful, um, very compact, very strong, great attitudes apparently, 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.360 and that's not just Chuck saying that, Um, chuck, you're 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:34.079 basing that on the guy who basically took these very isolated, happy, 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:40.199 UM self sustaining, self sufficient UM people, mountain people UM 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:44.439 and introduced them to the world, or no, introduced them 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:46.880 to the people who would introduce them to the world, 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.600 right right, What is the Englishman who's credited with saying, Hey, 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:52.760 if you want to get up Everest, do you need yourself? 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:57.640 As that was Alexander Kellis not tens ignore gay, not 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.520 Sir Edmund Hillary right, well, tends of noor gave was 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.360 a SRP. He's far too modest. I'm under the impression 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:05.120 to have been like, you want to get up Everest, 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.880 you get yourself a Serpa Sherpas store. They're not big 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.880 self promoters. The English have been the biggest promoters of 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:16.640 um sherpas and UM. Alexander kellis what was his name? 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:22.200 He tried to make it up Everest and failed. But um, 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.880 there was a there was a point in time where well, 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.160 if you look at a mountain, it's not like a cone. 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.560 You know, those um styrofoam cones that you can get 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.760 at like the craft store that have like actual volume. 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.880 It's a it's a cone. The mountain is not like that. 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.880 It has all sorts of craggy peaks and different faces. 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:44.319 And if you go up one side and make it 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.840 up easy, just that doesn't mean that you can go 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:48.720 up any other side and make it up easy. Right. 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:54.280 So the place where the um the Sherpa live is 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.920 actually a pretty good way to get up Everest, but 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.199 it was closed off. Nepaul as a country was closed 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.280 off to the rest of the world until I think 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.520 nineteen forty nine. Yeah, Everest was confirmed as a high 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.720 speak in eighteen sixty five, but it wasn't like all 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.080 of a sudden the floodgates were open and every brit 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.920 in the world said, I must conquer that mountain that 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.319 they said that, but they were like, but how to 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:21.360 get to it? And they happened right, But in between 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.319 they're like, well, let's just colonize that place and then 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:59.200 figure out how to get up exactly true. And when 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.280 India be in uh colonizing, I'm sorry when England began 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.920 colonizing India, Darjeeling, across the eastern border of Nepal was 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:11.360 a big popular tour spot for British military political officials. 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.440 That's where the big wigs that's where they met, uh, 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.400 the Sherpa, And that's sort of where the mountaineering profession 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:20.880 for the Sherpa kicked off, because all of a sudden 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:23.480 they were Englishmen saying, I can now get in here 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:26.400 to ascend in summit this mountain, but I need some 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:28.560 help because I'm not carrying all that junk. Yeah, and 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.559 it's not like Sherpas are the only ethnic group around 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:35.280 Mount Everest. But as people soon found, like you said, 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.640 they were sturdy, they are a compact, they can carry 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:41.480 tons of weight, and they have a cheerful attitude. So 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:47.520 Alexander Kellis introduced the the climbing community, the Western climbing community, 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.480 to the Sherpa, and in short order, Um Sherpas became 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:56.079 extremely famous after like you said, Sir Edmund Hillary uh 0:13:56.200 --> 0:14:01.440 summited um Mount Everest. Yeah, and he was one of 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.800 four people on that expedition. I never knew that. I 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:06.800 just thought it was Sir Edmund Hillary got in his 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:11.000 car in England and drove to Nepal and said, hey, 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:15.439 ten Zig, take me to the top. But it was 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:16.959 a big group of people and they were the only 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.720 two that made it right. They were the last ones, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:21.800 and they just kept on going. But yes, it was 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.960 ten signor gay Sherpa. That's his last name. Yeah, because 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.080 as you said at the beginning of this, it's it's 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:31.360 a it's a group of people, it's a profession, and 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.320 it's a last name. That's right. Um, So at that 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.320 from that moment on, everybody knew what Sherpas were, right. 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:43.440 Oh yeah, they were no longer confused with al pacas. No. 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.480 By in popular culture, people were like, oh, there are 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.960 a group of people. Yeah, literally the people from the East, 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.360 that's right. And they, like you said, don't they're not 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:56.080 grand standards. They don't get a lot of attention. And 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.920 I made a joke, Um, I believe it was either 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.760 dead bodies on everest or the Tibetan altitude sickness about 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.560 Sherpas being unsung at the time, about how you always 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:10.320 hear about, you know, the Indian or the brit standing 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.480 on top of the mountain and you don't see the 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.760 Sherpa behind him carrying all their junk. And that's really 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.840 true because when uh, well you know what I mean, Uh, 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.720 when Hillary ascended and summited, he got a knighthood and 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.960 Norgay got an honorary medal and you think, well, of course, 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.240 I mean, they're going to give the British guy the 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:34.200 knighthood and they're going to give the foreigner a medal. Untrue, 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:38.000 because sirmon Hillary is from New Zealand's right, he wasn't British, 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:43.080 so technically he wasn't a a citizen of Great Britain, 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.600 and neither was ten signor gay and they still didn't 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:48.400 get the same thing. Yeah, it was. It was called 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:52.000 the British Everest Expedition was the four People. So that's 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:53.840 why I think a lot of people probably thought Hillary 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:58.440 was a brit but he was not. But again, um 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:02.520 our Western culture is a little different from Sherpa culture. 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.000 They like you said, they're not grand standards, they're not 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:10.480 publicity hounds. They are um they do. The ones who 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.960 are involved in climbing and trekking do make a pretty 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:18.320 substantial amount of money, especially in comparison to what the 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.320 average person makes in Nepal. They make about two grand 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.200 for a trip, right, and that the gross domestic product 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:29.200 per capita of Nepal in two dozen sevens like three dollars. 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.960 That really puts into perspective. They're rich by other standards, 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:37.040 I guess extremely rich, very wealthy. Um. But they they 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:41.680 the I guess in addition to making money, they they 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:46.400 help other people ascend Everest to attain their personal glory, 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.400 right too, for the other people to attain their personal 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:53.760 story um, which is kind of there's a lot of 0:16:54.120 --> 0:17:00.400 uh dichotomy between how the SRPA view Mount Everest and 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.760 how they interact with it. That the Western influence kind 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.760 of puts them in this weird position because they are 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.960 they follow a form of Tibetan buddhism um which says 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:15.120 that you should perform selfless acts and help others, right, Yeah, 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.480 And and being at the top of Everest to them 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.360 means you're closer to enlightenment. Right. If the people are 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.080 going to climb up anyway, you might as well go 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:25.760 with them for too grand sure, but you might as 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:27.320 well go with them to make sure that they don't 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.399 kill themselves. Right, very selfless people, it is. But at 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.080 the same time they're helping the West kind of exploit Everest. 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.560 That some people worry that the Everest experience is being 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:42.399 cheapened since since Hillary Um summited Everest, I think like 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:47.320 more than twenty other people have, right kind of loses 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:52.040 its um closeness to the Buddhas when you know all 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.960 these other footprints are everywhere and there's a couple hundred 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.240 dead bodies on the on the mountain. Yeah, I think 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.760 uh Nor Gay kind of summed up there how they 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:02.720 feel about Everest when he called it. When they asked 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:04.560 him how he felt about being up there, and he 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.520 he likened it to a mother hint and said what else? 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.000 He said that this was quote warm and friendly living. 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.600 How about that? Yeah? And then Hillary shoved him back down. 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.440 He's like, quiet to get out of my picture frame. Noah, Gay, 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.560 here's your metal. Uh So, like you said, the um 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:28.080 the region now, Josh, because of the massive amounts of tourism, 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.399 and not massive like Grand Canyon massive obviously, but still 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:33.760 for Mount Everests it's a lot of people going there 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.760 trying to climb it. Um. We did talk about pollution 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.240 there now, and so the very thing that brings the 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:45.639 Tibetan Buddhist Serpa's enlightenment is also kind of denigrated the 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:51.320 area somewhat. Yeah. Well, it's about twenty people passed through 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.840 that area per year. And now you can go play pool, 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:59.040 you have internet access, you have the trappings of modern living, 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:06.000 do you also have the drawbacks of modern living deforestation, yeah, pollution, yeah, exploitation, 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:09.119 that kind of stuff, right, that's right. And this is 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.040 what we should point out in uh Sagara Matha National 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:15.600 Park where about thirty spas live and sagar Matha is 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:20.800 the word for Everest, right. The the SRPA themselves call 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:27.040 um Everest Chomo Lungma, Chomo Lungma Chumbawamba. It's close, no, 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:31.080 but that's not it. Okay, Chomo Lugma, which means roughly 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:35.600 goddess mother of the world or mother hen Uh. You 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:39.200 want to talk about a couple of famous serpis. Yeah, 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:41.119 we can talk about Edmund Hillary all day long, but 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.560 you never hear about Appa Sharpa. Yes, and all he's 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.439 done is ascend in summit ever seventeen times more than 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:52.000 anybody else in the world. Not bad. What about Babu 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:58.399 uh cheery chehery Sharpa, Yeah, camped on the summit of 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:02.439 Mount Everest fore hours without oxygen. Usually what happens when 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:04.600 you climb Everest as you get your picture made and 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.760 you say, wow, this is really unbelievable. This is amazing. 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:09.520 All right, let's go back down right, and you have 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:14.880 five million canisters of oxygen is disposing. I'm really high. 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:20.160 Who else there's a lock Lockpa Galu Sherpa, who holds 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.240 the world record for the fastest amount everest um a 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.840 cent ten hours fifty six minutes in forty seconds. That's 0:20:26.840 --> 0:21:04.480 a lot that man. Wow, you have Ming keep a 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.240 sharpa who Oh, what's the big deal with Ming? Ming 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:11.919 just climbed everest at the age of fifteen years old, 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:16.399 not on his xbox in real life. Yes. And then 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:20.800 there's Pessang Lambu Sherpa, who was chuck the first woman 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:26.480 which apparently, Um, when women started climbing everest or serving 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:30.719 as sherpas to climbing expeditions, um in the seventies, there 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:35.719 was uh, this is probably the biggest problem internally for 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:40.919 the Sherpa's that um, you know, Western tourism was was 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:46.440 having on their culture. You know, a woman's place traditionally 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:50.400 is at the farm in Sherpa culture, on the side 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:52.080 of the mountain. And I guess there was some static 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:54.439 for a while, and then finally, you know, more and 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:57.000 more women started doing it and we're doing it successfully, 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:01.000 and um that was that. Yeah. And and evidently, um, 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:04.720 when the husband, if the husband is the the sarpa worker, 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:07.640 um goes on one of these trips. Then the female 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:09.919 becomes ahead of the household at home if she's not 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:12.800 a sharper herself, and we'll take care of things just 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.680 like the husband would. It's nice, Yeah, Yet what else 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:19.960 is here? I love these people. I think we would 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:22.120 be you have a fun place in your heart. Means 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:24.919 that that they remind me the people of Guatemala, you know, 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:29.080 kind of short and friendly and warm, friendly living stocky. Yeah, 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:31.840 it makes me kind of wonder there's so many similarities 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:37.480 Chuck that huh huh uh yeah, because think about it. 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:40.680 Everybody calls the people of Sharpa, right, there are people 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.679 from the east, but that's in reference to where you 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:49.280 are in Solu Kumba Kumbo. Right. What were they called 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:56.479 before they moved west? The people Mayan? Maybe? Uh? Finally, 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:59.320 Josh for my part of this podcast. If you think 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:01.639 someone is all the rail, do you think the sharp 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.960 I have a bad with not getting any recognition. There's 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:07.600 also something called a porter. Yeah, and a lot of 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:11.760 sharps grow up serving as porters. As porters, that's basically 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:15.960 the job below the sherpa, who does even more of 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:19.560 the heavy lifting and gets even less money and less 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:24.280 oxygen less clothing, yeah, and other outerwear. Yeah. And there's 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:28.159 an actual international porters group, right, yeah, protection group that 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:31.040 are advocates for their safety and fair wages. Because obviously, 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:33.280 if you've got a very poor person doing a lot 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:35.600 of hard work, they're probably being taken advantage of in 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.280 some way. So, Chuck, we would be remissed to do 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:42.000 a podcast on the Shirpa and everest in Hillary Um 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:45.200 and not mention the Yetti. I don't know much about 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:47.000 the Eddie. I didn't look at that. So the Himalayas 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:49.800 are the home of the yeti, the abominable Snowman. It's 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:52.760 another way to put it, which is basically like the cold, 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:57.560 extreme cold, high altitude version of Bigfoot. Is that right? Yeah? Okay, 0:23:57.560 --> 0:24:00.080 I just always thought that's what we thought of it. 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:03.080 I didn't look into it. No, it is pretty much okay, Um, 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:09.240 It's a biped, very furry, heavy, large biped that's mysterious 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:12.880 and and lives out and out by itself. It's big Foot, 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:15.320 but in the him Alayas, it's like in the Empire, 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:19.560 like cometh, and it's more like the Abominable Snowman in 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:23.240 the Rudolph Christmas Specials. It looked kind of like the 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:30.520 thing in Empire, kind of who looks like wow? Um. Anyway, 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:34.760 Hillary himself was actually a believer in the Yeti. He 0:24:34.840 --> 0:24:38.440 went back after summiting Everest. He went back again in 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:41.760 nineteen sixty to look for the Yettie because he'd seen 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:45.800 YETI footprints what he took to be YETI footprints. Oh really, 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:48.600 huh interesting? He found nothing though he didn't and a 0:24:48.600 --> 0:24:51.520 lot of people think that these were just some other 0:24:51.600 --> 0:24:54.880