Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch
May 12, 2009 – A Very Special Visit
Before we left Pangboche on May 12th we learned of something very special that was going on at the home of Temba and Yangzing’s neighbor, an 86 year old Sherpa woman named Nwang Chosang.
Beautiful face of the Khumbu Valley
Nawang has lived in Pangboche all her life. Her husband died 1 ½ year ago. They had shared a long, healthy and successful marriage in this beautiful but harsh mountain home. Even though they never had children they had stayed side by side through many decades of harsh Khumbu winters and green, lush monsoon seasons.
Now a widow, we have seen Nwang walking daily to make here clockwise circuits around the Mani walls near her home. When Temba explained to us that this day had been deemed by the lamas calendar to do an annual rite of putting fresh colorful prayer flags on the pole at Nwang’s home we were eager to help.
What an experience! Even though she lives right off the crowded trekking trail to Everest Base Camp, Nwang’s life is little touched by that throng of international visitors. She lived here before that began and she lives now as if it has never happened. Yet she opened her heart and her home to us eagerly. She smiled and began to talk comfortably in Sherpa language to us, which Temba did his best to translate. In the end her joy and ours came not so much from literally understanding the conversation but rather from a deep and mutual respect that reached across generations and cultures.
Left: On this auspicious day we raised a new colourful prayer flag pole at Nwang Chosang’s house
Right: At 86 years old, Nwang Chosang is full of energy and was delighted to see us
Her’s is a typical old style Sherpa kitchen neatly organized
Nwang does all her own cooking and also spends a lot of time working in her potato field
Hard working hands
She began to talk incessantly after we arrived, eager to show us around. She seemed very glad to have our company
Rob, always the ladies man, was eager to be photographed with Nwang