‘Snow Leopard’ Sherpa cremated with national honor

Kathmandu: World record holder mountaineer Angrita Sherpa has been cremated with state honors on Wednesday. Nicknamed the ‘Snow Leopard’, Sherpa’s last rites were performed as per the Buddhist rituals at Teku Ghat.

He had passed away at his residence at Jorpati on Monday at the age of 72 years. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday decided to conduct the late Sherpa’s final rites with state honors.

In keeping with this decision, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai paid respects to the late Sherpa by draping his mortal remains kept at Sherpa Monastery Boudha with the national flag.

The Director-General at the Department of Tourism, high government officials, and senior tourism entrepreneurs among others paid their last respects to the late Sherpa at the Monastery.

Talking to Highlights Tourism, Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) Chairman Santa Bir Lama said, “This is an honor to whole mountaineering tourism and even more respect for mountaineers especially. He deserved this national honor. I personally and on behalf of NMA would like to extend special gratitude to the government and the Minister.” NMA had earlier asked for national honor to be given to Ang Rita Sherpa.

“He was a hero of mountaineering field and his world record is also different from others. That’s why he still holds the world record,” added Lama.

According to Lama, pride and integrity was also another side of Ang Rita. Many countries including India invited him to stay in their countries. However, Sherpa used to say, “I may be poor. But I won’t go to other countries. I will stay back in my own country and prefer to die here,” Lama recalls.

For this reason, NMA and Ang Rita had developed an in-depth relationship like nail and flesh. He had been training director at NMA since 2047 BS to 2050 BS and was appointed as a field director to get first-class level government salary after 2050 BS.

NMA had been supporting Sherpa even after retiring from NMA as a field director or during his illness. NMA had also decided to provide him a lifetime financial support of one hundred thousand rupees annually.  The NMA has also given Rs. 125,000 to the bereaved family of Ang Rita for assistance in funeral rites.

Angrita Sherpa had set the world record by climbing the tallest peak of the world, Mt Everest 10 times without supplementary oxygen. He is survived by three sons and a daughter.

Born at Thame of Solukhumbu district, Sherpa had started climbing Mt Everest since 1983. He set his feet atop the world’s highest mountain without using bottled oxygen for the last time in 1996. Besides Mt Everest, he also climbed Mount K2 of Pakistan and Mt Cho Oyu, Mt Manaslu, Mt Lhotse, Mt Annapurna, Mt Dhawalagiri and other mountains in Nepal.