Sherpa Regions

People who identify themselves as Sherpa and are recognized as such by other Sherpas and their non-Sherpa neighbors inhabit a considerable part of the highlands between the Sun Kosi and the Arun rivers, land that today falls within the administrative districts of Solu-Khumbu, Dolakha, Ramechap, Olkadunga, Sankhuwasabha, and Khotang. There are apparently also Sherpa villages west of the Sun Kosi in the upper Balephi Khola valley (Sindhupalchok district), and people who claim descent from these (and possibly other Sherpa-inhabited areas) also form a component of the multiethnic population of the Helambu region of Sindhupalchok just to the northeast of the Kathmandu valley.^[42] Sherpa settlement as far west as the Sun Kosi and as far east as the Arun river can be related to migrations from Solu-Khumbu as recently as the nineteenth century.^[43] As previously mentioned, there are also Sherpas in the Darjeeling district of the Indian state of West Bengal, the descendants of Solu-Khumbu emigrants who were attracted in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries to economic opportunities there (particularly to mountaineering and porter work).^[44] The inhabitants of a number of high-altitude settlements in the far northeast corner of Nepal near Taplejung (including the village of Gunsa) are also often referred to as Sherpa (Bremer-Kamp 1987; Sagant 1976). Fürer-Haimendorf suggests that these families migrated from Shorung (1984:3). In the late nineteenth century, while traveling through that region, Sarat Chandra Das was "told that the upper part of the valley [of Kangpachan] was first inhabited by Tibetans called Sherpas, migrants from 'Shar Khumbu'" (Pradhan 1991:70).

Khumbu Sherpas consider themselves one of as many as twenty (depending on who is counting and his or her familiarity with outlying areas) different Sherpa groups in Solu-Khumbu district and the adjacent Dolakha and Ramechap districts to the west and Khotang, Bhojpur, and Sankhuwasabha districts to the east and three groups further afield. These regions are listed and shown in map 4.

Immediately to the south of Khumbu in the middle reaches of the Dudh Kosi (as far as the village of Surke and the Chutok La beyond it) is an area considered to be the homeland of the Pharak Sherpas. South of them are a group that some Khumbu Sherpas call Katangami, people of

Map 4.
Sherpa Settlement Area and Regions

Katanga, who live in and near the Sherpa-Magar village of Kharikhola. South of Kharikhola the eastern Dudh Kosi valley is inhabited by Dongbu (Rai in the north and Gurung in the Ra Khola tributary) and Rongba (Hindu hill castes). Farther to the east, however, there are other Sherpa settlement areas beyond the Pangkongma La in the Hinku Khola and adjacent areas including Kulunge, the Kurima area to the southeast, and Sanam, Share, and other small settlements near the Salpa Bhanjyang (pass). Still farther to the east there are Sherpas living in small settlements such as Murde, Kuwapani, and Hurhuri on the ridge-crest of the eastern slope of the Arun valley as well as at Tashigaon, Navagaon, Yangding, Shashiwa, and other places on several west-bank tributaries of the Arun and possibly at Yakua farther upstream.^[45] The high country east of the Arun is inhabited primarily by peoples who settled there from Tibet in earlier times, but who are not directly related to Sherpas. The far northeast corner of the country, the Gunsa area northeast of Taplejung, however, is settled by people who may have at least some of their roots in Solu-Khumbu and who continue to make trading trips to Shorung today. West of the Dudh Kosi is more Sherpa territory. The area around Manidingma and Takshindo is sometimes referred to as Takshindo by Khumbu Sherpas who consider it different from Shorung proper. Shorung is considered to be the area from the ridge crest at Takshindo to the Lamjura pass and Pi Ke peak in the west, and from the high valleys at the foot of the sacred peaks of Numbur, Khatang, and Karyalong to the ridge south of the bend which the Solu Khola takes on its way east to the Dudh Kosi. Beyond Pi Ke and the Lamjura La there are three other Sherpa-inhabited regions east of the Khimti Khola watershed: the villages along and near the Likhu Khola, the village of Chyangma (which is jointly inhabited by Sherpas and Newars who settled there at least nine generations ago), and the villages of Golila and Gepchua. Farther west there are Sherpa villages near Jiri in the Khimti Khola region, Lambogar, Rolwaling, and the Bigu gompa (temple) area west of the Tamba Kosi. As already mentioned there may also be Sherpas as far west of the Sun Kosi as Helambu, although further research is needed to fully establish this. Khumbu Sherpas familiar with these various areas from trade, pilgrimage, and mountaineering and trekking work draw numerous contrasts between Khumbu culture and that of these other Sherpa groups.^[46]

Khumbu Sherpas thus have a well-defined sense of themselves as distinct both from other Sherpas and non-Sherpa peoples. Yet the question of what and who are Sherpas, or even Khumbu Sherpas, remains complex. In recent years the fame, status, and economic opportunities of the Solu-Sherpas have sometimes led Tamangs (G. Clark 1980b ; Fricke 1986:30) and Rais (Fürer-Haimendorf 1984) to claim to be Sherpas in

order to obtain tourism work. In the Taplejung area some non-Sherpa high-altitude dwellers reportedly refer to themselves as Sherpas rather than as Bhotias when dealing with lower-altitude people as a way of affirming their Nepalese rather than Tibetan nationality. In the Arun region some people call themselves Sherpas who have no association with Solu-Khumbu while lower-altitude peoples in that region have begun to use the term Sherpa "as a generic term for all Tibetan-origin people" (Parker 1989:12). Within Khumbu itself there is even some confusion over who is and is not Sherpa. Khumbu Sherpas have long drawn a distinction between the older clans, the descendants of early settlers, and those who came more recently and have drawn a far sharper line between Sherpas and Khambas, the descendants of immigrants from Tibet and other Bhotia areas. Lacking membership in a patrilineal Sherpa clan, these immigrants were not only considered different from Sherpas but were treated with prejudice even though in Khumbu intermarriage with them was tolerated and took place.^[47] This remains true today to a lesser degree. Khamba families intermarry freely with Sherpas, hold village offices, and are generally fully integrated into Khumbu society. Many now call themselves Sherpas and seem to be accepted as such within and outside of Khumbu. Further complexity is added by the fact that some of the central qualities by which Sherpas define themselves, as well as those by which outsiders distinguish them, have undoubtedly changed through time. Trading with Tibet, for example, was once an important aspect of Khumbu Sherpa identity, a quality which set them apart from Pharak and most Shorung Sherpas. Due to the decline in trade since the 1960s, however, this activity no longer distinguishes most Khumbu Sherpas from their neighbors.

For all the socioeconomic and cultural change of recent decades Khumbu Sherpas have not lost their sense of themselves as a people, and that to some important degree may be due to their having maintained their language, religion, social structure, and homeland. Territory is considered a fundamental aspect of identity. Khumbu Sherpas see themselves as the people who live in a particular group of four valleys on the border of Tibet. People who live beyond this region may be Sherpas, but are not Khumbu Sherpas even when, as in the case of the Pharak Sherpas, they may be culturally and socially very closely related indeed. Even the children of emigrant Khumbu Sherpas are often regarded as Darjeeling Sherpas, Shorung Sherpas, Kulunge Sherpas and so on rather than "Khumbuwa," people of Khumbu. It seems likely that the children of Khumbu Sherpas who have grown up in Kathmandu, speaking Nepali rather than Sherpa and living extremely different lives from their cousins in the mountains, will be considered to be "Kathmandu Sherpas" rather than Khumbu ones if they do not return to make their lives in Khumbu.

Finally, important facets of culture can also vary even among Khumbu villages. Local differences could be noted in such things as communal institutions and the conduct of festivals and village rites as well as in economic emphases.^[48] Such variation cautions against generalizations about "Khumbu Sherpa" and "Sherpa" beliefs and practices on the sole basis of familiarity with the way things are done in a few settlements.