KATHMANDU: How do you introduce your country to the outer world, when you meet a foreigner in the foreign lands? Obviously, every Nepali identifies with the land of ‘Sagarmatha’ and ‘Gautam Buddha’. “We are from a land of Buddha — the land where Gautam Buddha — the Apostle of Peace — was born”, this one line answers everything and we are accepted with a smile all over the world. These simple-looking words define every individual Nepali and Nepal as a country. Non-violence, peaceful and living in mutual cooperation are our traits both at the individual level and at the collective level as a nation.
Ngima Chyokee Sherpa alias Chhoki Sherpa was all busy with her work earning in a foreign land, South Korea, with scores of other foreigners meeting her daily or at the weekend. They were Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Filipino and others. When asked ‘where do you come from’, Chhoki Sherpa would pose a counter-question; “Do you know Sagarmatha? Do you know Gautam Buddha?” ”I come from the same land, she would reply with untold pride.” To her utter surprise, many of them would answer in negative with bold ‘No’ while some would answer with gentle ‘Yes’.
Emboldened by their response, Chhoki would ask: ‘Where was Gautam Buddha born?’ They would cry out — “Indo” alluding India. She used to get depressed as she wanted to directly identify with Nepal and Gautam Buddha. She was still not sure if again she would hear the wrong answer from foreigners she meets in the course of her work. Coming back to Nepal in February 2017 after 5 years stay in South Korea, Chhoki Sherpa made it a point to let the whole world know that she is from the land where Gautam Buddha was born. She desired to carry this lesson atop the highest mountain of the world Sagarmatha (Mt Everest).
She didn’t have any experience of mountaineering though. It appeared as if Chhoki Sherpa would never realize her dream. Just then came an invitation from her friends to join the climb of Ramdung Peak, situated on the borders of Khumbu and Rolwaling Valley of Dolakha district. She nodded in acceptance of the proposal to climb the peak. Chhoki didn’t realize she had more than required grits and stamina to undertake mountaineering until she scaled Ramdung peak with relative ease. It was sort of prior training and she got herself mentally prepared for Mt Everest on the encouragement and support received from her friends. She exclaimed with joy, ”Wow! I can go for my dream scale of Mt Everest with a message so dear to me — Buddha was born in Nepal.” She goes down her memory lane when she stayed in the yak shed in her childhood, her senior uncles used to share the story of Mt. Everest. This was when she set a plan for herself to climb the Mt Everest one day, at the sub-conscious level of her mind though. She was all the more fascinated with the glorious mountain when she studied the story of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, first Nepali women Everest summiteer.
After returning from Ramdung Peak, she focused her mind onto the Mt Everest. However, she had nobody to rely on and get further training from except her own desire to scale the mountain. She opened up first with her family members regarding her dream to climb the Mt Everest. To her great relief, all the family members supported her. Chhoki Sherpa encountered another problem to solve and that was regarding financial support for realizing her dream. She needed more than Rs 3 million for her Everest mountaineering expedition. There was no immediate solution to this problem and she put a halt to hurrying up the climb of Mt Everest.
One day she was sitting in a restaurant with her brother’s friend Mingma Dorchi Sherpa, Managing Director of Pioneer Adventure Pvt. Ltd. As destiny would have it, she shared her dream with him along with the financial issue blocking her dream to get into reality. It was as if a fairy angel working in her favor; Mingma was all praise for her and promised her all the necessary kits and gears to be supplied by his trekking company. Happiness knew no bounds for her now and she began her preparations for a climb to Mt Everest.
At the back of her mind, her cherished message of ‘Buddha was born in Nepal’ was constantly ringing like a mantra. Chhoki Sherpa saw it in reality as she would repeat this message after reaching the top of Everest. She began her expedition from Lumbini, birthplace of Gautam Buddha on April 8 and reached the summit on May 16, 2019. Along with the message ‘Buddha was born in Nepal’ she also carried another dearest issue to her heart ‘stop women trafficking and empower the women.’
Chhoki Sherpa has her own share of adventure which has an element of all uncertainties before one really succeeds to get the applause from all. She is at foothill and sets out for a mission to reach the summit of Mt Everest. This is the day of May 12 when she bows before the mighty nature and the lord of the mountains to receive blessings in her attempt to reach the top of the world. She prayed from the bottom of her heart to have clear weather and no untoward incidents on the way. Alas! she succumbs to another powerful force of nature this time on her own physiology. It is 3 pm on May 13, her team is about to set the first foot ahead on way to arduous and gritty journey on Mt Everest to reach the top. Just an hour ago at 2 pm, Chhoki Sherpa undergoes a spell of a monthly biological cycle called menstruation. Her health begins to deteriorate. What to do now? She stands to the challenge of the moment and asks her team to continue the expedition at the scheduled time.
She arranges for a bottle of hot water and continues — indeed, so daring in her resolve to accomplish her mission in hand. She continues to walk unsteadily sometimes bending down and other times with the support of her teammates. She bears the onslaught of pains in her wrist and legs. She manages to reach Camp-2. One the way she consumes a bottle of ‘energy drink’ to get relief from her deteriorating health conditions. Heavy snow and bad weather block the human movement and Himalaya trails on the Mt Everest halts. She stays at Camp 3 for two days. May 14 sees her team making an attempt to reach Camp 4 but the weather remains unapologetic and harsh conditions continue to prevail.
The whole team again returns to Camp-3. Chhoki Sherpa slips down while returning to Camp-3. What a slip is it adding more woes to her already suffering body? Come May 15 with brighter sunrays, all the mountaineers gather up their kits and gear to march forward to reach the Camp 4. After taking rest to 3 hours they start marching again at 10 pm. She remembers the bright display of sunlight at Mt Lhotse. ‘What a moment of life!’ she gushes out of awe towards the beautiful yet awfully unending expanse of nature. She thinks that it was the best scene she ever saw in her life. When she reaches a south summit, her helper Sherpa climbs down to take some oxygen bottle. In the meantime, she continues waiting for him for about 35 minutes. Her cameras and other necessary equipment are with him and she must wait for him.
When she reaches the summit, she sees everything below her. Clouds floating under makes her feel ecstatic as she is standing close to the sky. No word can explain what a happy state she is in. Tears begin to flow as these drops of water are the befitting tribute to nature and her majesty. She clicks hundreds of photos on the summit of Sagarmatha. Huh! When she checks for photos after coming back to Camp-4 and found that all those photos taken at the top of the Mt. Everest were nowhere recorded in her camera. She felt frustrated as there was no memory with her all because of a technical fault in the camera that her team-member was having. She planned to go to the summit once again to take the memory recorded in photographs. But, other team members stopped her doing that as they had photos of her in their camera. This was a great consolation for her and she was once again her usual self all happy and proud of her achievement. Her face glows with charm when she sees her summit photos.
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