Sherpa

Sherpa (autonymously Sharpa or Sharwa, "easterner") is a Tibetic language of Sino-Tibetan, spoken by around 200,000 people primarily in the Khumbu Mt Everest region of Solukhumbu district, Nepal, with significant communities in Sikkim/Darjeeling India and a global diaspora. The Sherpa are internationally famous as the elite mountaineers and high-altitude porters who have accompanied virtually every successful Mt Everest summit since the 1953 Hillary-Tenzing Norgay first ascent — Tenzing Norgay himself was Sherpa. The Sherpa migrated from eastern Tibet (Kham region) to the Khumbu in waves between the 15th and 19th centuries, retaining their Tibetan Buddhist religion and Tibetic language while developing distinctive Sherpa cultural traditions. Linguistically, Sherpa is closely related to Standard Tibetan but with eastern Tibetan (Khams) influences and Khumbu-specific innovations. Modern Sherpa is increasingly bilingual with Nepali and English, particularly in tourism-economy contexts.

Wear this language Pick the words you like, printed in the same typeface the map uses. Make a T-shirt from Sherpa words →