Sherpas, << SHUR puhz >>, are a people who live mainly in the mountains of the Himalayan range in northeast Nepal. Many of the approximately 25,000 Sherpas live near Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. Some Sherpas live in northeast India.
The Sherpas have traditionally made their living by farming. Their chief crop is potatoes, but they also grow barley, corn, and wheat. Sherpas also raise yaks, a type of ox that thrives in high altitudes. Since the early 1950’s, many Sherpas have worked as guides for tourists and porters for mountain climbing expeditions in the Himalaya. In 1953, a Sherpa named Tenzing Norgay and a New Zealand climber named Edmund Hillary became the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest.
Most Sherpas cannot read or write. But since the early 1960’s, the Sherpas have built schools in several villages. As a result, some Sherpa children have attended high school, and a few have gone on to college.
The Sherpas probably moved to Nepal in the early 1500’s from eastern Tibet. They still follow many of the customs and traditions of their Tibetan ancestors. For example, the Sherpa language is a Tibetan dialect. Most Sherpa women and some Sherpa men dress in Tibetan clothing. In addition, the Sherpas practice a form of Buddhism called Lamaism, which is the traditional religion of Tibet.
