Nawang Gombu - R.I.P

For me, when I first met him, Nawang Gombu was just an old time mountaineer who happened to climb the Everest twice, sat comfortably in the wooden office at the Himalayan mountaineering institute, Darjeeling and had a welcoming smile.

Then, to me like any other layman, Mountain meant Everest and mountaineer meant Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

On my next meet, this perception has changed drastically, as I shook hands, receiving my certificate from the man, I could well understand every freckle on his face and what would have gone into making of those hard lines, as had just about managed to complete my adventure course in mountaineering. “Ah! I see you have some much required talent for a budding mountaineer” Gombu had remarked, with a slight grin. My citation read, “Excelled in hat speech, debate and elocution”.

The two week course and the climb up from Jorthang to Darjeeling, nonstop in 6 hours had surely left a remarkable impression on my life and an amazing admiration for this mountaineer.

Nawang Gombu, the first man to scale Mt. Everest twice, died at his home in Darjeeling early on Sunday, 24th of April 2011, after a brief illness. He was 79.
He was not an attention seeker and thus went quietly into the night, when Sri Satya Sai Baba coincided to leave his body on the same very day; Satya Sai Baba hogged the limelight, which should have been equally if not more, due to the great soul of Nawang Gombu.

Born in 1936 in Minzu, Tibet, he was the son of Tenzing Norgay’s oldest sister, besides holding many records in mountaineering, scaling many peaks for the first and receiving many accolades globally, was a perfect human being, humble and inspiring to the core.
He was the youngest Sherpa in tenzing’s team which conquered the world’s highest peak and then went on to climb the Everest on different peak twice and many other peaks, no one had treaded before, he even took his grand children along on one of his achievements.
In the present day of mountaineering with most of the true essence gone and mountaineers fighting it out for money and fame, Gombu's message to all had been, "Mountains cannot be conquered, and mountaineering is like a pilgrimage. We have been paying our respects to the mountains for generations. For mountaineering to sustain as an adventure sport team spirit and love for the sport is the need of the day. Mountaineering can never be commercialized."
He has been an inspiration to me as a simpleton, an achiever and an outstanding human being. I am proud to have known him.

May his soul rest in peace.