Climbing history or one of the colonial mystery

[Anonymous]

"When the first climbers reached the top of Mount Everest, 70 years ago today, Western media sometimes framed the breakthrough as, predictably, a Western achievement. “2 of British Team Conquer Everest,” the Times headline began, describing the ascent as a “coronation gift” for Queen Elizabeth, who was about to be crowned. Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising, given that, in much of the world, the mountain carries an English name even though it’s in the heart of Asia.

A year after the historic climb, The New Yorker published its own piece about the expedition—but focussed its attention on Tenzing Norkay, the Sherpa who had been one of the first two men to reach the peak. (The other was Edmund Hillary, an explorer from New Zealand, funded by the British.) “He is to some extent a prophet without honor in his own country,” the staff writer Christopher Rand observed, of Norkay, a polite figure suddenly at the center of a debate over “whether he is a great man or only an able servant.” Read Rand’s 1954 story about Norkay’s triumphant summit—and the jealousy and headaches that followed: http://nyer.cm/7stFugj"

[Anonymous]

Are there other similar examples?

[Anonymous]

Do your own homework, kid!

[Anonymous]

Tenzing Norgay is super famous and esteemed.

[Anonymous]

I think he’s now known as Tenzing Oktobegay.