Tenzing: Hero of Everest [Paperback]

Ed Douglas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

A portrait in observance of the first Everest ascent's fiftieth anniversary follows the life of Tibetan-born Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, from his life as an illiterate yak herder to his relationship with Sir Edmund Hillary and his accomplishments as a mountaineer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

U.K.-based writer, editor and mountaineer Douglas has written what his publisher is touting as "the first full biography of Tenzing Norgay," the Sherpa leader who accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953 on their pioneering 29,028-foot climb to the top of Mt. Everest. Douglas follows in the snow-covered path of last year's books by Tenzing's son, Jamling Tenzing Norgay (Touching My Father's Soul) and grandson Tashi Tenzing (Tenzing Norgay and the Sherpas of Everest). An illiterate yak herder, Tibetan-born Tenzing grew up in the shadow of Chomolungma (the Sherpa name for Everest), and in 1935 was chosen for his first expedition, although "he couldn't yet speak a word of English and had to gesture that he had no certificate from the Himalayan Club." When he reached the summit in 1953 he became "a role model for ordinary people, someone of humble birth who had made headlines around the world." Douglas weaves numerous Everest adventurers into this tapestry of Tenzing's life, and the author's extensive mountain-climbing experience gives the book an authoritative solidity. He enumerates tragic deaths, compares contradictory passages in various written accounts and examines cultural misunderstandings, commenting on political issues triggered by Tenzing's triumph. He also covers Tenzing's later years, which were darkened by drinking and depression. This is an honest, inspiring look at one of history's great adventurers. Map and photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792265572
• ISBN-13: 978-0792265573
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,410,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #79 in Books > History > Asia > Nepal

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most in-depth accont ever of Tenzing's climb from obscurity to stardom, May 25, 2007

By 

Kelvin B. Kent (Ouray colorado) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tenzing: Hero of Everest (Paperback)

In this thoughtful, well researched and educational book, Ed Douglas has delved far beneath the superficial surface of Tenzing, Sherpas and Himalayan climbing. The history and lead up to the 1953 climb with Ed Hillary is both thoughtful and highly detailed but despite the incredible academic depth and factual information, this book is highly readable and appealing to anyone who seeks knowledge of Tenzing's extraordinary beginnings in Tibet, move to Nepal and settling in Darjeeling to be close to the action for all pre world war 2 expeditions to the Everest region. Douglas's accurate descriptions of some of these early expeditions to Everest and other high peaks make "Into Thin Air" look like a church picnic. Most of all we get a true picture of life as a Sherpa rising to Sirdar status and what singled out Tenzing from all the others. This is a human story complete with all the highs and lows of struggle, family, ambition, success and failure, with eventual world accolade diminishing into depressiion, loneliness and frustration. This is a book that every interested world mountaineer should read. It finally puts into perspective what went on during those amazing decades from the 20s to the 70s.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars history lesson, June 24, 2004

By 

K. Twohig "Twig" (Nevada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tenzing: Hero of Everest (Paperback)

When I purchased this book I thought that I was going to receive a thrilling biography of the first ascent of MT. Everest. But instead I got a history lesson on the culture, area, and Tenzing's family. I had a hard time staying awake through the beginning and the end of the book. The middle kept me going while Everest was being climbed. The writing was fine. It just was not exciting. So if you are writing a paper for you college history class, check out this book. If you want an exciting mountaineering book, look somewhere else.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well researched and thoughtful, February 15, 2009

By 

Nina M. Osier (Randolph, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tenzing: Hero of Everest (Hardcover)

It's a biography, not a "mountaineering book" as such. With that understood up front, this life story of Tenzing Norgay provides the reader with both well researched information and thoughtful analysis.

Tenzing Norgay adopted "Sherpa" as his identity only after his 1953 summit of Mt. Everest with New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary. Born to Tibetian parents within sight of the moutain that would change his life so completely, Tenzing at age 20 migrated to Darjeeling - the Indian mountain city famed for its importance to British colonials who summered there - in order to give himself and the family he would soon have a future. In the world of his boyhood and young manhood, borders mattered little. One's identity came from family, not place of birth. Tenzing learned climbing by working for foreign expeditions, in the beginning for the same reason as any other young man of his time and place: because it was how he could make a living. As he learned, though, and as he became friends with some of his employers - most notably Swiss climber Raymond Lambert - Tenzing began to share their passion for making it to the top. That was not among the values of his own culture, and pursuing it set him apart in ways that would persist through the rest of his life. The book is organized to place the summiting of Everest roughly at its mid-point, and that's appropriate because the event defined Tenzing's life in a similar way.

A highly intelligent yet illiterate man who navigated not just two cultures, but many, with surprising success. A back-country tribesman who became a close friend and frequent house guest to India's Prime Minister Nehru. A world traveler whose natural shrewdness in interacting with other people, regardless of culture, sometimes failed him. A father of two families, one born to him in his 20s and the other in his 50s, who wanted the best for all of his children and who did all that he could - as he understood it - to make that happen. Biographer Douglas does a more than creditable job of exploring his subject within the context of background, time, and place. His thoroughness does lead to passages where a reader without a particular interest in that time and place, not just in Tenzing Norgay, may bog down; but otherwise the book is entirely readable, and I found those passages essential to its credibility.