Jamling Norgay of
"Everest" film
Jamling Tenzing Norgay, the alpine guide featured in the blockbuster IMAX film "Everest," will be featured speaker this spring in the John Paul Hammerschmidt Lecture Series at North Arkansas College. Norgay will speak Thursday, April 6, 2000, at 7 p.m. in the JPH Business and Conference Center on Northark's South Campus in Harrison.
Jamling is the son of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who was, with Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to set foot on the summit of Mt. Everest on May 29, 1953. Sherpas, the native people of the Himalayas, are considered by many to be the true heroes of mountaineering and have been leading explorers into the Himalayas for years.
As a young boy, Jamling dreamed of climbing Mt. Everest, just as his father did, but Tenzing discouraged his children from becoming mountaineers because of the danger. When Tenzing died in 1986, Jamling's dream grew even stronger. The problem was that to become a lead climber on an Everest expedition, it cost at least $35,000, a lot of money for a man with a wife and a child on the way.
All that changed in 1995 when IMAX producer Greg MacGillivray went to Nepal in search of participants for his Everest movie. "Jamling was perfect," says MacGillivray. "I was looking for a climber to define the culture of the Sherpa people. Who better than the son of the first Sherpa to climb Everest?"
Jamling retraced his father's historic steps to Mt. Everest's elusive 29,028-foot summit May 23, 1996-just two weeks after a record nine people were killed in the mountain's worst disaster ever. When jamling and the IMAX team reached the summit, Jamling felt the spirit of his father. He left a small prayer flag, along, along with photos of his late parents and the Dalai Lama. Then, just as his father had done almost one half century earlier, he left a small toy of his daughter's, and struck "the pose"-the same dignified stance his father assumed in 1953 that etched an indelible image in the minds of millions who had read about it afterward.
Jamling travels frequently to the United States giving lectures on Everest, the environment in which he lives, and its future well being. He plans to go back to clean Everest's South Col (the 26,000-foot high camp). He will also continue his involvement with the Nepalese climbing club he started to help kids get off the streets. Considering all his achievements, there is no doubt he will live up to his full name, Jamuling Yandak, or "world renowned."
This will be the second presentation in the John Paul Hammerschmidt Lecture Series. Astronaut/Cosmonaut Dr. Jerry Linenger inaugurated the series September 11, 1999.