Mounteering: A Space for Cultural Identify in Jamling Tenzing Norgay's Touching My Father's Soul

Abstract

This research “Mountaineering: A Space for Cultural Identity in Jamling Tenzing Norgay’s Touching My Father's Soul” discovers the cultural identity and its practices of Sherpas. The central motive of this research is to show the celebration of Sherpas root or indigenous culture in the genre of autobiography. Jamling, as an autobiographer and a representative of Sherpa Culture, highlights the unique identity of Sherpas and Nepalese mountain. This thesis explores how the protagonist of the autobiography finds his identity in mountain climbing that his father, Tenjing Norge Sherpa also had done as the first man to atop the Everest. The Sherpas basic identity lies in their culture which is rooted in mountain life style, mountaineering, worship of mountains as gods and celebration of Buddhist mode of life. Thus, the research exposes that mountaineering is not only a profession of Sherpa but also a space for constructing and promoting their cultural identity.