RIP Sir Edmund Hillary

Mount Everest conqueror Edmund Hillary dies


Thursday January 10, 2008
Guardian Unlimited

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest, has died at the age of 88.

The New Zealander reached the summit of the Himalayan mountain on May 29 1953 alongside the Tibetan-born Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

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Like all western myths, this 'first man to conquer' Everest endures.

Nepali sherpas walk on Himalayan mountains without proper gear all the time (despite severe snow-bite). They do carry loads for the white mountaineers. Tenzing Noragay was such coolie who assited Sir Hillary but cud never be treated on par with Sir Hillary.

That's the irony of this world.

Same goes the story of Vasco de Gama 'discovering' sea route to India.

Sumerian, Arabs & Persians travelled to India for thousnads of years but their curse was that they never wrote the history of this world nor encyclopeadias where they'd have written about their own intrepid voyages to India.

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Sir Hillary was also the High Commissioner to India since Mt Everest was considered as part of the British Indian Empire.

N.B: New Zealand government didnt post him to Nepal but to India.