Global Sherpa Conference- Tshering Sherpa

“Let’s Stay United rather than divided, let’s work for betterment rather than Impairment, Let’s have a support & respect rather than to neglect & disrespect”

– Tshering Sherpa (Founder- Sherpa For Change), USYC Member 2015

First of all, I would like to thank Nepal Sherpa Association and all other supportive organizations and individuals to make the Global Sherpa Conference happen in our community for the very first time. I believe that this conference will establish a better relationship among our people to work for the betterment of the community from their respective field without interfering other fields. Since many people are trying to figure out the main goal of Global Sherpa Conference, as a Student and as a youth I felt to deliver some of my opinions and I heartily welcome if there are any questions, comments or compliments.

Whatever we are doing today is for our better tomorrow. It means we are thinking about our future generation and trying to do something better than what it is right now. Many people have different thoughts regarding what we are lacking in and lacking for. Some people might think that the major issue that we have been facing is about the preservation of culture. Some might think that the major issue is the education, employment, religion etc. This can clearly state to everyone that we have a major issue not only in one particular area but also in other different areas. So, the major aim of our people and the organization should be to work on for the solution of each and every issues that the people have been facing from a long time back. We have issues in our culture & tradition, Employment, Education, Health, Environment & Sanitation, Infrastructure, Science & technology and many more.

Keeping other things aside, I personally feel happy to see that most of the people are talking, discussing, debating, communicating for the welfare and betterment of Sherpa community. I personally prefer to define that the interest group towards the development of community has been increased hugely compared to past years. This surely project one thing that if we have a common feeling to achieve the common goal for the development then we can build up the community we have been dreaming for. But on the other side, this point is also a transition phase where a small misunderstanding or division would lead to a disaster. So, it’s time for everyone to become aware and to take on necessary steps to achieve the common goal from their respective fields.

First thing, as per my view in order to bring a change in our community firstly we need to know most of the things from the grassroots level. The major problem that we are facing till now in our community is regarding our culture & tradition, Employment, Education, Health, and Environment & Sanitation. There are many other areas too. But the above areas are much focused in the writing.

I haven’t mention all the details in my article. To give a brief scenario of my perspective I have mentioned all the things in a very brief to give a clear picture of our past, present & future. Small family is a happy family, likewise let’s try to make our small community a happy community. This article basically is presented in certain forms of statements and questions too. In many headings I have written down my perception and curiosity as well.

I personally feel that the main aim of Global Sherpa Conference is to establish a strong unity among our people and to work together for a better Sherpa community. To achieve this goal one must be aware of the pathways he/she should walk thorough. Therefore, it would be better if all Sherpa people, organization, individuals’ etc. to be able to focus on the major things presented below:

There are so many other things as well but to give a brief understanding I have presented the major elements.

(Only to give a brief scenario of my perspective I have mentioned things in a very brief in order to give a clear picture of our past, present & future)

Fig: The elements that determines a better Sherpa Community

History

I am proud to be Sherpa and every day I do my best to keep myself updated with all the news, issues etc. Sherpa people are well known in the world in the field of Mountaineering. Our names cannot be avoided. It was there, it is there and it will be there in the name of the mountaineering industry about the bravery and the achievement of our people. I believe that every people are aware and have a clear understanding about our history.

Things we need to focus:

How many of us are aware about our history?
What happens if there is a history knowledge gap to certain group of population?
What happens if people don’t have a common understanding of history?
How often do we think about conducting historical seminars, talks etc.?
What we were before, what we are now and what will be our status in future?

Culture & Tradition

Many of us are really concerned about our culture. We might have been discussing about the standard and the level of the existence of our culture in the nearer days and for the coming generation. Many things plays a vital role for the preservation of culture in which self-initiation is the major factor as per my view. We also need to figure out how diversified we are among our own Sherpa community in several locations in terms of culture, customs, traditions etc.

Let’s look at the following things:

Do we have a common understanding that even in our small community we have a slight diversification in terms of our culture depending upon our location?
Are we aware of all the culture, customs & traditions of Sherpa people living in overall Nepal and abroad nation?
Are we aware about the number of performance centers in the community – theaters, concert halls, clubs, etc.?
Do we know what sort of activities are done by the organization from urban and rural areas for the preservation of our culture & tradition?
Do we have a documented films/audios about our culture in Sherpa, Nepali & English language?
Do we have sufficient knowledge about our festivals and our special events during different occasions?

Language

Diversification of our language in various areas that we represent
Existed organization and their roles for the preservation of language
The past and the present scenario of the language in the community
Do we take self-initiative to preserve our language?
Do we prefer to community with our family & friends in our own language?
Do we appreciate the language from all different areas where Sherpa’s belong to?

Employment

Everyone dreams to have a proper employment opportunities in their own nation. Nowadays many individuals are taking initiative to provide employment opportunity as well through several entrepreneurial ventures. Most of us know that majority of our people are employed in the Tourism industry. The science and technology have made many things much easier and on the other hand challenging as well. To know about the employment status of the youth and the overall people of our community is must.

Are we aware about the diversified employment opportunities existed in our community?
Do we have the data of our currently employed age group out of total population and unemployed too?
Are we aware of how many people are unemployed and what’s the cause for the unemployment?
How can employment opportunities be generated within the community?

Do we have any kind of career/job fairs in our community?
How many people are employed in abroad nation? (Nation wise data would help a lot for analysis)

Health

When a person of 70+ age runs, works and performs like a young person, many of us might get surprised to see the condition of that person at that age. It’s all about maintaining a healthy life and to stay balanced in our health condition. Health is must for an individual to manage wealth and other necessities. Many times we are so much focused to our work and other stuffs that we forget to think about our health. So does our younger generation too and might be the same for the coming generation. If we can take some important steps before getting into a problem then we are already heading towards a better solution/prevention.

Few things that strike in my mind about the health of our community:-

Do we have the exact data of health post, hospitals, clinics etc. in our overall places?
What is the major disease or health issues faced by Sherpa people that lead towards death?
Do we often have health campaigns, health talks, health exhibition covering overall areas for the betterment of the health of our people?
Are we aware about the health insurance and do we have proper health insurance?
Do we have a regular checkup of ourselves and all our family members?

Education

I can see maximum young kids, adults etc. going for a school, high school, college, University etc. to have a proper education for which I and every people are proud. In past years our parents did an extraordinary task for the families even with the little education they had in those period. I myself feel lucky to have a golden opportunity to study about the field of my interest and I would like to thank my parents from the bottom of my heart. The thing is about the productivity of the age group so called educated. I am an educated youth but I’m not aware about in what educated percentage of our community do I belong to? There are many qualified professionals and individuals in our community as well. In many cases there might be some networking or communication gap among these people with other people from the community.

Certain curiosity related to education:-

What is the total educated population in our Sherpa community? Do we know what % of male and what % of female are educated?
What is the rate of student studying abroad of our community?
What is the total overall amount announced for scholarship/grants per year for students?
Is there any alternative funds to provide education to the needy people?
Are we are about the high school, undergraduate, graduate, post graduate, PHD students from our community?
What’s the productivity rate of the graduate students? In which sector most of the graduate students from Sherpa community are engaged in?
Which sector students are mostly attracted in? What other areas are there where students aren’t focusing much but has a very bright scope?

Environment

Sherpa people live mostly in the Himalayas. Many tourist come to visit our Himalayas and we should be proud for whatever we have. On the other side, our environment is getting worst day by day due to our unnatural activities that is directly or indirectly hampering our environment.

Are we aware about the happening environmental degradation?
What sort of self-initiative do we take to preserve and conserve our environment?
Are the royalties/fees which have been received used for the preservation of respective environment?
Is there any concerned organization looking after the degrading state of environment? What sort of activities have been performed by the concerned organizations?

Entrepreneurship

We do have amazing ideas among our youths in our own community. Due to the lack of entrepreneurship platform many ideas are just going away for no reason. Ideas/Innovation can lead to a financial activity if planned and executed properly. We have already good number of people starting their own business and trying to do something productive. I am always seeking forward to know much about entrepreneurship as I believe that this will lead to the increment in job opportunities.

Do we have enough number of angel investors in our community?
Are we encouraging for the growth of the startup business?
Are we aware enough to use the platform of the crowd funding?
Do we have any platform where youths can come and deliver their ideas and if someone is interested would invest in his/her ideas?

Politics

Whenever people hear about politics most of us still have the common statement “यो सवै हावा हो र यस्को हावा गफ कती सुन्नु”. It’s obvious for people to think about such as we don’t see a proper implementation from the parties and the leaders. Whenever there is some problem with the political condition then every sector gets affected. It’s because the activities are associated with the governance of the country. People have various perspective about politics but as an individual even though we are not interested into politics, it’s really important to stay updated about the overall political conditions.

Whenever it comes to the community, there are several policies been formulated from several umbrella and other organizations in various field. The curiosity towards politics of our community is a never ending process as we see a lot of changes happening now and then. Let’s figure out some of the major points:

Where is the main point our leaders are lacking to work for the development?
What can we do from our individual effort for a better stability?
Do we know the total number of community organizations, their overall activities each year & the budget allocation?
How can we be a politically aware citizen?
How many political leaders are there from our community and in which party do they belong to?
What are the principles of each parties? Are they performing as per the principles?
Do we keep track of what sort of activities have been performed by our leaders?
Do we make people aware about the voting rights?

Crime & Law enforcement

I believe that Sherpa people have very low crime rate. As a major follower and true practitioner of Buddhism, we have been driven towards the practice of living a healthy life without any crime. But for proper development of the community, we must be aware about the crime and violation people are involved in. Law can only bind together all the people and equally too.

How to reduce and overcome from the existed crime?
Do we know what sort of laws are existing among the several organization of our community?
Have we gone through the laws and policies of the concerned community organization?
How to make proper law enforcement?

Science & Technology

We are becoming smarter day by day due to the availability of several technologies. Everyone must be curious to know about where actually our community belong to in terms of the advancement of science and technologies.

Do we have any common technological application from where we could learn about Sherpa’s history, culture, religion, language etc.?
Are we making our task and daily activities easier through the proper use of technologies?
Are we aware about the updates of science & technologies from national and international level?
Can we imagine to maintain all these elements together without use of science & technology?

Demographics

According to the census of 2011 it has been presented that Sherpa consist of 112,946 which is 0.42% of the total population. This might or might not be the exact figure. In the present days we can see our people in many countries too. Some have already settled themselves, some are there for studies and some for the employment. It has already been late to maintain the proper statistics of our demographical facts. But the demographical fact will truly help in many of our planned activities. Through the demographical facts we can be more inclusive and we can expect the support & contribution from the people residing in several places in different nation.

The total number of Sherpa people in abroad nation and country basis data is important
Do we have the data of the death rate and the birth rate in Sherpa community?
What is the migration rate of Sherpa people and its major causes?
In which places the migration is most?

Religion

I believe that majority of Sherpa people are Buddhist. But as per the development of science and technology people interest have been diverted and we could see diversification in the religion during the present times. So the thing is we need to figure out what is the actual data of people following Buddhism and other religion.

Sherpa people following (data would be appreciated)

What % of our population follow Buddhism?
What % of our population follow Christian?
What % of our population follow other religion?
Are we having the right and actual religious practices in our home and other special events?
Do we really understand about all the prayers and spiritual practice performed at our home?
Is there any platform for the interested ones to have an online/ audio/ video/e-book to study about our religion and its practices?

All in all, Global Sherpa Conference as per my view is just a beginning of all these steps. I believe and I trust that everyone will surely think about these matter and address accordingly individually & from their respective organization. There must be some meaningful conclusion from the conference but there might be some misunderstanding as well. So, dedicating to every Sherpa people I have tried to mention few things and in really brief. There are many other things which I haven’t included in this article. Me as an individual and as a youth will always be there to support and contribute for the welfare and development of a better Sherpa Community. I believe every other people also have the same feeling in the matter of support and contribution.

I always dream about having a better community but later I came to realize that it’s not an easy task. It doesn’t mean we can’t make it into reality. The thing is to focus more on the unity rather than fraction/division. We cannot achieve it at once but then if we have dedication and devotion with the aim of achieving common goal then one day we can see our dream community. Another thing I would like to mention is about the transferring of skills which is lacking in many areas. One leader being skillful can’t be able to lead the whole group who aren’t skillful. The very first thing would be to make the followers and other people skillful. Let’s not only focus and be proud of whatever we have but let’s try to make other people aware and productive.

To make a better community is not a simple and easy task. It takes a lot of time and a very strong dedication from every single individual. At the moment where we are trying to maintain the education & knowledge gap it’s really important for everyone to know about all the mentioned elements regarding their past. To make it simpler, we really need to invest in the proper Research & Development to get the real facts about our community in the form of number, data etc. Without the fact it becomes difficult for anyone to start planning for the development. We know our final target is to establish a better community but then having information about the proper facts & information about the above mentioned elements would make our way much easier.

(Depending upon the reader’s choice, I would present the detail version of this article in the nearer days.)

“Let’s Stay United rather than divided, let’s work for betterment rather than Impairment, Let’s have a support & respect rather than to neglect & disrespect”