Who is Tenzing Norgay? Why is his birthday on May 29th celebrated as Everest Day

Perhaps the most successful achievement of a long set target was with the conquest of Everest. This is one of the greatest achievements of man along with setting foot on the moon, flying across the Atlantic, or swimming the English Channel.

What is noteworthy was this attempt to climb Everest, as per documents, in 1921, continued to be unsuccessful. Even Tenzing Norgay was successful only on his 7th attempt. The feat was finally achieved by the duo Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, on Tenzing's birthday, 29th May 1953.

Sagarmatha as the Nepalis call Everest was named after Sir George Everest, the first land surveyor of British India. Everyone knew it was the highest peak, standing tall at 29,031.7 feet, but several attempts between 1920 and 1953 were unsuccessful. There were two routes to the top, one from Nepal, called the standard route and the other through Tibet called the north ridge route. The problem was that neither Nepal nor Tibet allowed foreigners to climb Everest as they considered it holy.


In Tibetan, the name is Chomolungma or holy mother. The most prominent expedition prior to 1953 was in 1922 where George Mallory and Andrew Irvine began ascending but mysteriously never returned. To this day there is a debate whether they made it to the top or not. But in 1953, Tenzing Norgay representing India and Nepal had conquered Everest and was declared the first man to scale the mountain. There was a massive celebration in Nepal and India for this achievement by Tenzing.

There was an attempt by Nepal to declare Tenzing as a Nepali citizen, to which he objected at that time. Since Tenzing was from Darjeeling, he wanted India too to share the credit. Time magazine had declared Tenzing Norgay as the most influential man in the 20th century. He died in Darjeeling, the first Chairman of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in 1986.