Tenzing Norgay

Tenzing Norgay

(born May 15, 1914, Tshechu, Tibet [now Tibet Autonomous Region, China]—died May 9, 1986, Darjeeling [now Darjiling], India) Tibetan Sherpa mountaineer. Tenzing served on numerous expeditions before joining Edmund Hillary as sirdar, or organizer of porters. In 1953 he and Hillary became the first two people to reach the summit of Mount Everest. A devout Buddhist, Tenzing left an offering of food at Everest's summit.

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Tenzing Norgay

1914--86, Nepalese mountaineer. With Sir Edmund Hillary, he was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest (1953)

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Norgay, Tenzing 

Born May 1914, in the village of Tsachu, in the Solo Khumbu Valley, in Nepal. Mountaineer. Citizen of India; of Sherpa nationality.

Tenzing worked as a guide, porter, and sirdar (director of a group of porters) on many mountaineering and research expeditions, and he was an instructor of mountaineering training. He participated in six ascents of Chomolungma (Mount Everest). The Himalayan Club awarded him the title of Tiger in 1938 for reaching an elevation of 8,290 m while carrying a load. On May 29,1953, together with E. Hillary, a New Zealand mountaineer, Tenzing made the first successful ascent of Chomolungma.

In 1954, Tenzing became director of field training for the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, and from 1955 he served as chairman of the Association of Sherpa Mountaineers. He ascended Mount Elbrus in 1963. He was the first foreigner to be awarded the Soviet Medal for Distinguished Athletic Achievement.

REFERENCES

Tigrsnegov [Tenzing’s autobiography, as told to J. R. Ullman]. Moscow, 1957. (Translated from English.)
Hunt, J. Voskhozhdenie na Everest. Moscow, 1956. (Translated from English.)