Mallory Warned against Climbing Everest

– HB Kham

The story of British national named George Mallory who is said to have made at least three unsuccessful attempts to climb Mount Everest in 1921, 1922 and 1924 from Tibetan side is rife with mysteries whether he really reached the peak of Everest or not as his body was found in 1999 at a height of 8155 meters. The very cause of his death was ice blizzard.

Mallory’s porters were late Ang Tshering Sherpa, Ang Thargay Sherpa, and Tshering Tamang.

These porters had migrated to Darjeeling from Nepal in search of jobs and incidentally, Mallory had met with them and asked them to accompany him during his expedition.

Mallory’s expedition team consisted of 21 porters of which at least 7 had died along with Mallory around Everest peak.

The expedition team had spent five days at a village on the way to the base camp to undergo the acclimatization.

It was during this period that the three porters along with Mallory had met with His Holiness Sangay Dorje Rinpoche ( renowned Buddhist Guru) at the Rongbuk Monastery to seek his advice and blessing for their expedition to Everest (Sagarmatha).

But to their utter surprise, the Rinpoche instead of granting a blessing to them for the first time ascent of Mt.Everest warned them against continuing their expedition to Chomolungma (Everest).

The Rinpoche said, “Since the Chomolungma (Everest) is the head of Buddhist Goddess Dolma, it is a sacred place not only for you but also for the whole universe. Dolma is also the custodian of the entire world. Once it is contaminated by a human step, the person who steps on it will not return to his country and I will also die in this monastery on the same day for failing to protect the Everest because it is a sin to step on the head of the Dolma or Everest. It may also herald the debacle and chaotic unrest in the whole world. ”

His Holiness Rinpoche also had divulged that he would not be reincarnated in this sinful world after he would be compelled to die in that monastery after the landing of the human step on Everest.

However, Mallory and his team just ignored such warnings of His Holiness Rinpoche as they could not believe in such hypothetical beliefs.

Mallory’s team took leave of the His Holiness Rinpoche and without any hesitation and scary feeling began their journey towards Everest. Mallory accompanied by three of his porters strode towards the topmost Everest peak.

However, the porters who had stayed behind at a distance of one hour below the peak could not see Mallory and his porters scaling the top of Everest, as there was a sudden heavy snowfall and gust of wind.

The porters waited for several hours for Mallory team to return from the Everest peak. At last the remaining porters returned to the base camp thinking that Mallory would reach the base camp later at night.

But there was no sign of Mallory til three days. Then all the porters had returned to their respective homes from the base camp without Mallory.

The three porters who returned without Mallory, then approached His Holiness Sangay Dorje Rinpoche to seek his advice about what could be done to rescue Mallory, who was missing.

To them the head lama of the Monastery told that His Holiness Rinpoche had died four days ago, (probably the day on which Mallory stepped on the highest peak or the premises and as predicted by Rinpoche himself that he would die on the same day).

Many religious-minded Lamas still believe that the unrest and violence in the world had started from the day the first man’s step landed on Everest which is the sacred head of Dolma. But many would discard this idea and would not agree with such mythical and mystical logic.

Notwithstanding, the mystery of Mallory’s ascent to Everest in 1924 has not yet been unraveled until today.

One can simply speculate that perhaps Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary who became the world’s first mountaineers to climb Mount Everest returned home safely because the predictions of His Holiness Rinpoche had already been fulfilled and Mallory had already become the first human scapegoat to bear the consequence of Goddess Dolma’s curse for contaminating it.

Whoever climbed Mt Everest hereafter were exonerated from this sin

Source: (Based on a true story narrated by one of the porters (of Mallory expedition team of 1924) to Nepali trekking entrepreneurs-Santos Lama and Ang Nima Sherpa).