Tenzing Norgay

Tenzing Norgay (; tendzin norgyé; May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi, and also referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. He was one of the first two people known to certainly reach the summit of Mount Everest, which he accomplished with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953. Time named Norgay one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Early life There are conflicting accounts of Tenzing's early life. In his autobiography, he wrote that he was a Sherpa born and raised in Tengboche, Khumbu, in northeastern Nepal. In a 1985 interview with All India Radio, he said his parents came from Tibet, but that he was born in Nepal. According to many later accounts, including a book co-written by his son Jamling Tenzin Norgay, he was born in Tibet, at Tse Chu in the Kama Valley, and grew up in Thame. He spent his early childhood in Kharta, near the north of the country. Norgay went to Nepal as a child to work for a Sherpa family in Khumbu. Khumbu lies near Mount Everest, which the Tibetans and Sherpas call Chomolungma; in Standard Tibetan, that name means "Holy Mother," or the goddess of the summit. Buddhism is the traditional religion of the Sherpas and Tibetans, and Norgay was Buddhist. Although his exact date of birth is unknown, he knew it was in late May by the weather and the crops. After his ascent of Everest on 29 May 1953, he decided to celebrate his birthday on that day thereafter. His year of birth, according to the Tibetan calendar, was the Year of the Rabbit, making it likely that he was born in 1914. This agrees with Hunt's statement that he was 39 in 1953, and had "established himself (as) not only the foremost climber of his race but as a mountaineer of world standing."