WEBVTT - Sherpas: Warm, Friendly Living 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:15.120 from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.639 the Sherpa. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Didn't I 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.160 just say Sherpa? No, he said welcome to the podcast. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:22.759 Why would you say welcome to the Sherpa because the 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.040 Sherpa is a nation of people and also a last 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:29.920 name and also an occupation. Yeah, that's pretty good. Well, 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:35.520 that's the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:42.400 as Charles W. Chuck Bryant to ignore Gay Bryant. Yeah, yeah, Chuck, 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:47.600 we're talking about sherp today. Yeah. Is it Sharpa or sharps? 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:49.800 Have no idea because I see both in this article. 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.879 I do as well. All right, let's find out, shall we? 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.520 Everyone will just hold on a second. Are you actually 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.800 looking this up? Chuck? Most people do this before there 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.560 hit podcast? Have you have you ever seen Well, I'm 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.800 sure this won't make it in. You never know, they'll 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.319 never make it in. Have you ever seen um? Indiana 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.480 Jones and the Temple of Doom? The first one that 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:15.559 was not the first one? Yes, it was that Raiders 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:17.240 the Lost Ark was first. That's what I meant. I'm 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.160 sorry Temple was too. What was they thinking, I don't know. 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.880 You've seen Raters of the Lost Ark. Yeah, okay, scores 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.240 of times. So you know when he find he goes 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.640 to meet Marian for the first time after like ten 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:35.200 years after Jiltinger. Yes, the drinking scene. Yes, the guy, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.080 the huge guy that Marian is drinking with or I 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.040 guess in a drinking contest with. It's like they kept 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.680 hearing me say chuck over and over again. Right, Um, 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:50.760 that my friend was was it? I'm pretty sure he 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:55.880 looked Mongolian to me. No, they were definitely in like Nepal. Okay, yeah, 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:58.680 it's it, even said Nepaul. Remember he flies in the 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.440 plane a boop, and it's like takes him to Nepal. Yeah, 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.680 all right, so let's call him a Scherpa. So scher 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.040 Buzz is plural of Serpa. That's what I thought. I thought, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:14.600 so too. Um. The Srpa people are actually pretty fascinating. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.519 They're pretty isolated, um, and they haven't been where they are, 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:23.160 which is the base of Mount Everest in the um 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:28.919 Solu Kumboo area region of Nepal for more than actually 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.919 about five years, and when they arrived in the Solo 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.560 Cumboo region, they found it uninhabited. And the reason why 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.160 is because the Serpas are pretty much the only people 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:43.840 on the planet besides maybe Ethiopian Highlanders or Peruvians in 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.360 the Andes who could conceivably live in this area because 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:51.000 again it's at the foot of Mount Everest. Yes, and 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.960 we recorded a podcast on Tibetans and altitude sickness, so 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.480 if you want to know all about that, refer to 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:01.160 that podcast. But Josh, you're right. They might grated from 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:05.560 Tibet from the province of Calm to the northeast corner 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.080 of Nepal around the sixteenth century because of warfare. Yeah, 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.840 and I as I understand, they're very peaceful people, oh 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:17.120 very so they would have been fleeing warfare, I would say, so, 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:23.959 not running toward it right headlong. So um, they migrated there. 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.120 There was a lot more like forest and wood and 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.520 fuel for fuel at the time, which was good. And 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.520 they could grow wheat and buckwheat at the time, and 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:34.840 that's about all they could grow, but that was enough. 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.880 Right later on, potatoes really changed the way they do 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:41.920 farming because they grow a lot of potatoes. Now, yeah, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.760 the I think the potato was introduced in the mid 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:49.200 nineteenth century and that kind of changed everything eighty I'm sorry, um, 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.360 but if you think about it, this these people, well, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.400 when they first arrived in the area, they moved to 0:03:55.880 --> 0:04:00.840 um uh the Cumboo Valley, which is higher up actually 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:05.760 then um the Solu area, and it's about um, between 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:07.960 eleven thousand and thirteen feet and they're like, this is 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:10.520 a little too high. Everybody is a little sick. So 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:13.040 they're gonna move a little further down to the Solu 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:19.440 region between it's still extremely high. Um, it's still extremely rocky, 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.440 and they whip this part of the Himalayas into shape. 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:27.480 They created um terraced farm fields Guatemala. Baby, remember that. Yeah, 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.760 down a slope you can create you can farm on 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.640 the side of a mountain. People do. But um, think 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:35.840 about this, I mean, like, how did they figure that out? 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.719 I'm very curious. Well, I mean it's you know, it's 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:42.640 not rocket science. You need flat land. And if you 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.159 have a steep side of a mountain and you cut 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:48.680 into that, you can create a series of steps essentially, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:52.359 which is flat land. Cherishing their laughing. I would have 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:54.720 been in trouble cherius, like I've been the Guadamala three times. 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.200 I know all about step irrigation and then how to 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.279 do all this. I would have been like, man, I 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.920 wish it were around here. I guess I'll just sit 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:07.159 here until I die, right, Um. So, oh, I'd be 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.400 terrible at it. One of the reasons why I'd be 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.200 terrible at it is because I will get in my 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:17.880 car to drive five feet from say, store to store. 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.560 Do you do that over there at the Edgewood, Like 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:23.920 you've got a target and you'll drive to Kroger. I 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:29.839 haven't been there in a while, but I have. I have. Yeah, yeah, totally. 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.400 I mean like I'll walk. I walk more now than 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:34.680 I ever had before in my entire Like the weather 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:36.839 or what's going on. Definitely depends on whether it depends 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.120 on my schedule. Very often I get that if I'm 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:40.800 in a hurry, I might do that, right. I would 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.080 make a terrible strip of though, because they don't have 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:50.400 wheeled anything there. A terrible stripper. I would make both terrible. Okay, yeah, 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:52.040 well I know what Aaron Cooper is going to make 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:55.960 this time exactly. Um, yes, as I just said, I 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.640 think I think it bears reiterating, Um, Mr joke guy. 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:04.920 There are no wheeled anything's there. There's no cars, there's 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:09.200 no wheelbarrows. Yeah, they don't even use wheelbarrows, which now 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:11.360 we've reached another reason I would be a terrible shirt. 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.480 But they have to carry everything. I can barely carry 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:16.920 a thing a dog food out of the grocery store 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.719 to my car. And that's like with a car involved, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:27.560 which has wheels, which they don't have in the Solukumboo region. 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:29.960 That's right. They carry everything, Josh, and they use uh 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:34.359 we actually saw this in Guatemala. To the plumb line 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.839 Trump wine, Trump line, it's home line is a little different. 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:42.680 What they'll do is they'll, let's say, get a big 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:46.159 load of firewood and they'll they'll they'll wrap it up 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.640 in in a spanking on the bottom, spanking on the bottom. 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:51.279 They'll wrap it up and so they can wear it 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.800 on their back and a big bundle and then attached 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.400 to the top of of you know, let's say they 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.720 lay it in like a hammock and fold that over 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:01.320 a hammock like thing and then and that is attached 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.480 to a band that you know, it's like a headband 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:06.640 and so it goes around their head and it takes 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:08.560 a lot of the weight off their back. And we 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.960 saw these and Guatemala dudes walking up the road and 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.880 I thought, man, look at that. That's like ancient engineering 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:17.160 still in practice. And you're like, man, I want to 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.280 I gotta do more of that. And you got back 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:23.360 here and you're like, give me a cheeseburger and my 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.559 Jan Sport backpack. Anybody who's ever seen the front cover 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.520 of um led Zeppelin four is familiar with this concept 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.960 as well. Was he wearing one of those? He should 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.280 have been if he wasn't, because that's a big old 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.360 bundle of sticks that guys carrying. There was a bustle 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:45.240 in his head drawn So um Srpas can whip a 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:50.960 mountain into farmland. They can live on buck wheat and 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.760 then several hundred years without the potato, and then the 0:07:53.800 --> 0:08:00.720 potato and yak yak milk and yack meat, yeack. They everywhere, 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:06.720 but they carry things everywhere. Um with the acts they 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.840 and they they are basically a mountain, their mountain folk. 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:15.600 They had. They speak a Tibetan dialect that's virtually their own. 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.800 They don't have a written language, no written language. Until 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:24.160 the nineteen sixties, there's no formalized education. Um, they just lived. 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.280 They carved a very meager existence out for themselves. And 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.720 thanks to a dude named Sir Edmund Hillary, they now 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:35.520 have the foundation that he set up. And we'll get 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.240 to Edmund Hillary in a second, but everyone, come on, 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:40.599 you know who he is. He's the first mandous and 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.480 everest with tin signor sharpa to summit to summit, what 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:46.920 I say, I send? Yeah, I mean, what's this? You 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.199 gotta get to the top, right or else? What? He 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.920 just blew sixty five grand That's about how much it 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.880 cost the day. So through his foundation in later years, 0:08:54.880 --> 0:09:00.320 he he became to love the uh peaceful Buddhist of 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.440 of the shirt of people there, and so he's like, 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:04.360 you know, and except the foundation, we're gonna do things 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:08.400 like bring some schools, bring some hospitals, give these kids 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.679 access to healthcare, things like that. So he did that 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.240 and that helped a lot, although nowadays, you know, the 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:19.240 schools aren't in great shape. Evidently it's kind of hard 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.280 to get there. So um, they're they're doing the can right. 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:25.080 You can take the folk out of the mountain but 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:26.679 you can't take the mountain out of the folk, you 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.000 know what I mean? That's right. Uh, they are very friendly, 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:35.839 very peaceful, UM, very compact, very strong, great attitudes apparently, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.560 And that's not just Chuck saying that, Um, Chuck, you're 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:43.239 basing that on the guy who basically took these very isolated, happy, 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:49.280 UM self sustaining, self sufficient UM people, mountain people, um 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:53.640 and introduced them to the world, or no, introduced them 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.680 to the people who would introduce them to the world, right, right, 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.199 What is the Englishman who's credited with saying, Hey, if 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:01.920 you want to get up Everest, do you need yourself 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:06.840 as serpa? That was Alexander Kellis, not tensign Or, not 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.559 Sir Edmond Hillary. Right, Well, ten Signor was as far 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.080 too modest. I'm under the impression to have been like, 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:14.920 you want to get up Everest, you get yourself a 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:19.280 serpa sherpa store. They're not big self promoters. The English 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.960 have been the biggest promoters of um sherpas and um. 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:29.200 Alexander kellis what's his name? He tried to make it 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:32.679 up Everest and failed. But um, there was a there 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.559 was a point in time where well, if you look 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:37.800 at a mountain. It's not like a cone. You know 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.960 those um styrofoam cones that you can get at like 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.280 the craft store that have like actual volume. It's a 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.679 it's a cone. The mountain is not like that. It 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.360 has all sorts of craggy peaks and different faces. And 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:54.000 if you go up one side and make it up easy, 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:56.440 just that doesn't mean that you can go up any 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.160 other side and make it up easy. Right. So the 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:04.240 place where the the Sherpa live is actually a pretty 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:08.280 good way to get up Everest, but it was closed off. 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.120 Nepal as a country was closed off to the rest 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.120 of the world until I think nineteen forty nine. Yeah, 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.160 Everest was confirmed as a high speak in eighteen sixty five, 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:19.880 But it wasn't like all of a sudden the floodgates 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.040 were open and every brit in the world said, I 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.840 must conquer that mountain. That they said that, but they 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.960 were like, but how to get to it? And they 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.240 happened right, But in between they're like, well, let's just 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:34.320 colonize that place and then figure out how to get 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:40.560 up exactly true, And uh, when India began uh colonizing, 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.679 I'm sorry, when England began colonizing India. Darjeeling across the 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.280 eastern border of Nepal was a big popular tourist spot 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:52.200 for British military political officials. That's where the big wigs, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.880 that's where they met uh, the Sherpa. And that's sort 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.040 of where the mountaineering profession for the Sherpa kicked off, 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.360 because all of a sudden they were Englishman saying I 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.160 can now get in here to ascend and summit this mountain, 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:06.480 but I need some help because I'm not carrying all 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:08.800 that junk. Yeah, and it's not like Sherpas are the 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:13.600 only ethnic group around Mount Everest. But as people soon found, 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:15.880 like you said, they were sturdy, they are a compact, 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:18.719 they can carry tons of weight and they have a 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:24.319 cheerful attitude. So Alexander Kellis introduced the the climbing community, 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.720 the Western climbing community, to the Sherpa, and in short order, 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.560 Um Sherpas became extremely famous after, like you said, Sir 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:38.400 Edmund Hillary uh summitted um Mount Everest. Yeah, and he 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:42.800 was one of four people on that expedition. I never 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.280 knew that. I just thought it was Sir Edmund Hillary 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.280 got in his car in England and drove to Nepal 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:53.199 and said, hey, ten Zig, take me to the top. 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:55.480 But it was a big group of people and they 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:57.600 were the only two that made it right there. They 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.839 were the last ones and they just kept on go. 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.719 But yes, it was tens Ignore Gay Sherpa. That's his 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.160 last name. Yeah, because as you said at the beginning 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.080 of this, it's it's a it's a group of people, 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.600 it's a profession, and it's a last name. That's right. Um, 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.959 So at that from that moment on, everybody knew what 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.640 Sherpas were, right, Yeah, they were no longer confused with 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:25.120 al pacas. By in popular culture, people were like, oh, 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.839 they're a group of people, literally, the people from the east, 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:31.280 that's right. And they, like you said, don't they're not 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:35.000 grand standards. They don't get a lot of attention. And 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.800 I made a joke, Um, I believe it was either 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.680 dead bodies on everest or the Tibetan altitude sickness about 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.440 Sherpas being unsung at the time, about how you always 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.200 hear about, you know, the Indian or the brit standing 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.360 on top of the mountain and you don't see the 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.640 sherpa behind him carrying all their junk and that's really 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.680 true because when uh, you know what I mean, uh, 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:02.640 when Hillary ascended and summited, he got a knighthood and 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.839 Norgay got an honorary medal, and you think, well, of course, 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.120 I mean, they're going to give the British guy the 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.760 knighthood and they're going to give the foreigner a medal. 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:16.880 Untrue because sirmon Hillary is from New Zealand. He wasn't British, 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:22.000 so technically he wasn't a a citizen of Great Britain 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.520 and neither was tens ignore gay, and they still didn't 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:27.320 get the same thing. Yeah, it was. It was called 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.920 the British Everest Expedition was the four People. So that's 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:32.760 why I think a lot of people probably thought Hillary 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:37.360 was a brit but he was not. But again, um, 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:41.440 our Western culture is a little different from Sherpa culture. 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.920 They like you said, they're not grand standards, they're not 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:49.440 publicity hounds. They are um they do. The ones who 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.840 are involved in climbing and trekking do make a pretty 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:57.200 substantial amount of money, especially in comparison to what the 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.320 average person makes in Nepal. They think about two rand 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.120 for a trip, right, and that the gross domestic product 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.120 per capita of Nepal in two dozen sevens like three dollars. 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.880 That really puts into perspective. They're rich by other standards, 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.920 I guess, extremely rich, very wealthy, um. But they they 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:20.600 the I guess in addition to making money, they they 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:25.080 help other people ascend Everest to attain their personal glory, 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.680 right too, for the other people to attain their personal story, um, 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:34.920 which is kind of there's a lot of dichotomy between 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:40.240 how the Serpa view Mount Everest and how they interact 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.200 with it. That the Western influence kind of puts them 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:47.000 in this weird position because they are they follow a 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.520 form of Tibetan buddhism um which says that you should 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.400 perform selfless acts and help others, right, Yeah, And and 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:56.960 being at the top of Everest to them means you're 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.560 closer to enlightenment. Right. If the people are going to 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.440 climb up anyway, you might as well go with him 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:04.920 for two grand sure, but you might as well go 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.120 with them to make sure that they don't kill themselves. Right, 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.080 very selfless people, it is. But at the same time 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.480 they're helping the West kind of exploit Everest. That some 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.680 people worry that the Everest experience is being cheapened since 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.920 since Hillary um summited Everest, I think like more than 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:27.360 twenty other people have. Right kind of loses its um 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.400 closeness to the Buddhas when you know all these other 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.480 footprints are everywhere and there's a couple hundred dead bodies 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.400 on the on the mountain. Yeah, I think uh Nor 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.120 Gay kind of summed up there how they feel about 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:41.960 Everest when he called it. When they asked him how 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.000 he felt about being up there, and he he likened 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:47.440 it to a mother hint and said what else? He 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.840 said that this was um quote warm and friendly living. 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.480 How about that? Yeah? And then Hillary shoved him back down. 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.480 He's like, quiet to get out of my picture. Right, No, Gay, 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.480 here's your medal. Uh So, like you said, the um 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.520 the region now, Josh, because of the massive amounts of 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.879 tourism and not massive like Grand Canyon massive obviously, but 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.480 still for Mount Everests it's a lot of people going 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.640 there trying to climbate. Um. We did talk about pollution 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.160 there now, and so the very thing that brings the 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:26.480 Tibetan Buddhist Scherpa's enlightenment is also kind of denigrated the area. Somewhat. Yeah, well, 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:31.280 it's about twenty people pass through that area per year, 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.120 and now you can go play pool. You have internet access, 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:39.399 you have the trappings of modern living, and you also 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:44.840 have the drawbacks of modern living. Deforestation, yeah, pollution, yeah, exploitation, 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.880 that kind of stuff. Al Right, that's right, And this 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.200 is what we should point out in uh Sagara Maatha 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.520 National Park where about thirtys live and sagar Matha is 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:59.680 the word for Everest, right, the the SRPA themselves call 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:05.960 um Everest Chomo Lungma, Chimo Lungma, chumba womba. It's close, no, 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:10.520 but that's not it, Okay, Chomo lugma, which means roughly goddess, 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.680 mother of the world or mother hen Uh. You want 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.280 to talk about a couple of famous repos. Yeah, we 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.280 can talk about Edmund Hillary all day long, but you 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.800 never hear about Appa Serpa. Yes, and all he's done 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.760 is ascend in summit ever seventeen times more than anybody 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.640 else in the world. Not bad. What about Babu uh 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:37.600 cheery Chaherri Sharpa. Yeah, camped on the summit of Mount 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.200 Everest for twenty one hours without oxygen. Usually what happens 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.040 when you climb Everest as you get your picture made 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.640 and you say, wow, this is really unbelievable. This is amazing. 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:48.399 All right, let's go back down right and you have 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:53.760 five million canisters of oxygen and disposing. I'm really high. 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:59.040 Who else there's a lock Lockpa Galu Sherpa who holds 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.440 the world record for the fastest mount Everest um sent 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.160 ten hours fifty six minutes in seconds. That's a lot 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:11.320 that man. Wow, you have Ming keep a sharpa who oh, 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.000 what's the big deal with Ming? Ming just climbed Everest 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.919 at the age of fifteen years old, not on his 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:23.000 xbox in real life. And then there's Pessang Lambu Schrpa, 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:28.520 who was Chuck the first woman which apparently, um, when 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:33.800 women started climbing Everest or serving as sherpas to climbing expeditions, 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.800 um in the seventies, there was uh, this is probably 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:42.879 the biggest problem internally for the Sherpa's that um, you know, 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:48.520 Western tourism was was having on their culture. You know, 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:54.040 a woman's place traditionally is at the farm in Sherpa 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:55.920 culture on the side of the mountain. And I guess 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.360 there was some static for a while, and then finally, 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:00.399 you know, more and more women started doing it and 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:04.200 we're doing it successfully. And um, that was that. Yeah. 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:08.119 And and evidently, um, when the husband, if the husband 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.000 is that the sharpa worker, um, goes on one of 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:13.399 these trips, then the female becomes ahead of the household 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.360 at home if she's not a sharper herself, and we'll 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:20.080 take care of things just like the husband would. It's nice, Yeah, 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.119 Yet what else is here? I love these people. I 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.080 think we would be you have a fun place in 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:29.639 her that they remind me the people of Guatemala, you know, 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:33.720 kind of short and friendly and warm, friendly, living stocky. Yeah, 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.520 it makes me kind of wonder there's so many similarities 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:42.199 Chuck that huh huh uh, Yeah, because think about it. 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.400 Everybody calls the people the spa, right, there are people 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:49.359 from the east, but that's in reference to where you 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:54.000 are in Solu Kumba Kumbo, right. What were they called 0:20:54.000 --> 0:21:01.480 before they moved west? The people Mayan? Maybe? Uh. Finally, Josh, 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.119 for my part of this podcast, if you think that 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:06.480 is off the rail, do you think the sharp I 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:09.960 have it bad with not getting any recognition. There's also 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.760 something called a porter. Yeah, and a lot of sharps 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:17.240 grow up serving as porters. As porters, that's basically the 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.760 job below the sherpa, who does even more of the 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.919 heavy lifting and gets even less money and less oxygen 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:29.520 less clothing and other outerwear. Yeah. And there's an actual 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:33.520 international porters group, right, yeah, protection group that are advocates 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.120 for their safety and fair wages, because obviously, if you've 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:38.520 got a very poor person doing a lot of hard work, 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.560 they're probably being taken advantage of in some way. So, Chuck, 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:43.800 we would be remiss to do a podcast on the 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.760 serpa and Everest and Hillary Um and not mention the Yetti. 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:50.639 I don't know much about the YETI I didn't look 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:52.800 at that. So the Himalayas are the home of the Yetti, 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.840 the abominable snowman. It's another way to put it, which 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:59.960 is basically like the cold, extreme cold, high altitude version 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:02.800 of Bigfoot. Is that right? Yeah? Okay, I just always 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:05.400 thought that's what we thought of, but I didn't look 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.680 into it. No, it is pretty much. Um, it's a biped, 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:14.800 very furry, heavy, large biped that's mysterious and and lives 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:18.119 out and out by itself. It's big Foot, but in 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:21.400 the Himalayas. It's like in the Empire, like come off, 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.960 and it's more like the Abominable Snowman in the Rudolph 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:28.720 Christmas Specials. It looked kind of like the thing in Empire, 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:36.840 kind of who looks like wow. Um. Anyway, Hillary himself 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:40.119 is actually a believer in the yetti. He went back 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:44.080 after summiting Everest. He went back again in nineteen sixty 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:47.879 to look for the Yettie because he'd seen YETI footprints 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:52.359 what he took to be YETI footprints. Interesting. He found nothing, 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:54.280 though he didn't and a lot of people think that 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:58.159 these were just some other animals footprints that melted in 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:02.840 the snow and expanded as the snow melted. Who knows YETI. Again, 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:06.359 you have taught me something, my friend. Thank you for that, 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:08.240 because I couldn't figure out how to wrap this one out. 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:10.399 I feel like we should apologize for the light nature 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:12.760 of this, But we just recorded right before this on 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:15.440 the nuclear disaster in Japan, so I think we were 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:20.320 rife for a little. Plus. Also, we should point out, 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:24.919 in true Sherpa style, chuck this way. Well, think about this. 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:28.240 They there there there are all sorts of trappings of 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:32.679 Western influence and degradation of culture. Um, there is a 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:36.280 dwindling of population. I think at its peak this area 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:39.760 was home to thod people. Now it's down to thirty, 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:44.840 like you said, in them in the park right. Uh 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:50.560 the the there was a National geographic survey of Sherpas 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:55.040 saying are you concerned about Western influences on your culture? 0:23:55.520 --> 0:23:58.720 And they were like not overly? Can you heard me? 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:01.520 The teeth over remote you're sitting on it. If you 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:06.720 have any mountain dew or so, that's a spas. If 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:09.600