What exactly is the Sherpa Heritage Museum?

The Sherpa Heritage Museum is, in fact, the family house of Pertemba Sherpa, who is probably the most successful expedition sirdar [chief Sherpa] ever – he was my sirdar when I climbed the southwest face of Everest [in 1975] and in 1985 as well. He’s a brilliant organiser and leader, a fine climber and a very nice guy. His family was one of the first to arrive in Khumjung [a Nepalese village at an altitude of 3,900 metres just above Namche Bazar] about 150 years ago. They came over from Tibet, where they had a house, to spend the summer with the yaks in Khumjung when there was no-one else there. They decided it was quite a nice place to live and started living there all year round. They were obviously a wealthy and successful Sherpa farming family as it’s a big, beautiful house, the oldest in Khumjung. Pertemba felt that it should be preserved, and had the idea of actually giving the house to the community, but first completely renovating back to its original state. Virtually all of the houses in Khumjung have been modernised with corrugated iron roofs or enlarged windows, and although they’re probably more comfortable to live in, they’re not like Sherpa houses once were. Pertemba has very strong views about his roots, so he wanted to give it to his community, to remind youngsters of their history and give trekkers and tourists an opportunity to learn about the Sherpa community.

What’s the building’s current state of repair?
It’s pretty dilapidated. Unless something is done about it pretty quickly, the whole thing’s going to fall down – that’s why we’re making an appeal to raise funds at the Royal Geographical Society. It’s a relatively modest amount we need – £52,750 – which is incredibly reasonable, but that’s just for the actual repairs. It’s very difficult to make a museum such as this self-sustaining, so you need a small sum of money to act as a cushion. I’m confident we’re going to raise that money because there are so many people out there who’ve visited Khumjung and Everest and have come to love the Sherpas. Today, the Sherpas are in a state of change; they’re modernising. The problem is, in their haste to modernise, there’s a danger they’ll discard their roots along with their early architecture. Pertemba is getting no material gain from this whatsoever, it’s just something that he really wants to do for the community. Doug Scott [the first Briton to climb Everest], who’s a good friend of mine, has a very successful charity, Community Action Nepal (CAN), which basically builds schools, hospitals, bridges and other infrastructure for the poorer villages. It also works with the local people to ensure that there are local businesses, run by local people. And through CAN, we can actually support a project such as this – CAN will act as the vehicle for handling all the funds, while the project management will be done by the Khumjung Sherpa community in conjunction with CAN.
More Information can be found at Sir Chris Bonington Geographical