{"id":28185,"date":"2017-11-28T05:57:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T12:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=28185"},"modified":"2017-11-27T09:12:28","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T16:12:28","slug":"pasang-lhamu-sherpa-a-story-of-courage-needs-your-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/28\/pasang-lhamu-sherpa-a-story-of-courage-needs-your-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Pasang Lhamu Sherpa: A Story of Courage Needs Your Help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>She had a dream &#8211; Pasang Lhamu Sherpa wanted to\u00a0be the first Nepali woman to summit Everest and in 1993 she did it but paid the ultimate price. The documentary <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglassceilingmovie.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Glass Ceiling<\/a> tells her story but needs funding to bring it to market.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 30%; float: right;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.indiegogo.com\/project\/the-glass-ceiling-documentary\/embedded\" width=\"222px\" height=\"445px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Let me say on a personal note, that the more I dug into this story, the more I join the chorus that it must be told. If you read nothing else, watch the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglassceilingmovie.com\/trailer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trailer<\/a> &#8230; then I bet you will come back and read the rest of this post and make a donation &#8211; I have.<\/p>\n<p>Filmmaker Nancy Svendsen learned of Pasang\u2019s story through her brother-in-law, Ang Dorjee Sherpa, and thought, \u201cthe world needs to know this story!\u201d She brought in New York Times\u00a0bestselling author and Everest sumitteer\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alisonlevine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alison Levine<\/a>\u00a0as executive producer.<\/p>\n<p>Pasang&#8217;s story is mostly unknown outside of Nepal. \u00a0Her desire to climb Everest was met with opposition from the beginning. While Sherpa men had been climbing Everest for half a century, Sherpa women were expected to stay home, bear children, and perform domestic\u00a0functions.\u00a0 But Pasang refused to give up her dream.\u00a0Although she was born into poverty and never learned to read or write &#8212;\u00a0 she had the courage to fight sexism, racism and even the Nepali government for her right to climb Everest.<\/p>\n<p>The film tells her story not only as a climber but also as a woman with a dream who broke through barrier after barrier.\u00a0Now another barrier stands in the way of bringing her story to the world &#8211; money.<\/p>\n<p>The film team has opened a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiegogo.com\/projects\/the-glass-ceiling-documentary#\/\">crowdfunding<\/a>\u00a0campaign and is\u00a0grateful for your donation in any amount.<\/p>\n<p>Now let\u2019s talk to Nancy, Alison and Pasang\u2019s eldest brother Ang Dorjee Sherpa<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>AA: Nancy, can you summarize the moment when you knew you would make this movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NS: When my brother-in-law Dorjee Sherpa told me the story of his sister, I felt an immediate connection to her. \u00a0Her passion and determination to do what everyone told her she couldn\u2019t do was inspiring and stirred the storyteller in me. \u00a0Here is the greatest contemporary Nepali hero, with a statue in Kathmandu, schools, streets, a hospital and even a mountain named after her &#8211; yet no one has ever told the story outside of Nepal. \u00a0This was astounding to me. \u00a0I decided right then I wanted to make this film.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AA: Nancy,\u00a0your sister is married to Pasang&#8217;s brother Ang Dorjee so would you share your insight into why the Sherpa community discouraged women on Everest in the\u00a0early 1990s?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NS: While Sherpa culture defined a woman\u2019s role as mother and homemaker in the 1980s and 1990s, Pasang\u2019s greatest obstacles were not necessarily the Sherpa community. \u00a0While her parents weren\u2019t happy with her relentless independence at an early age, when she escaped her arranged marriage to run away and start a new life in Kathmandu with her chosen partner, Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa, she found greater obstacles in the caste dominated Nepali society there.<\/p>\n<p>Sherpas were literally outside the caste system &#8211;\u00a0\u201coutcastes\u201d. \u00a0They didn\u2019t speak the language of the government officials. \u00a0They had no guaranteed civil rights. \u00a0When Pasang and her husband started one of the first Sherpa owned trekking\u00a0companies, they faced multiple hurdles in getting permits and permissions from the government. \u00a0When Pasang directed her ambitions towards Everest, she was\u00a0summarily dismissed by everyone. \u00a0Her first chance at Everest was on a French expedition in 1990 where she was not\u00a0allowed a chance to summit. \u00a0This disappointment fueled her decision to put together the\u00a0first -ever Sherpa sponsored Everest expedition. \u00a0Her path toward that goal was met with opposition at every turn.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>This is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglassceilingmovie.com\/trailer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Glass Ceiling<\/a>\u00a0trailer:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Glass Ceiling Promo v9\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/241409577\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" frameborder=\"0\" align=\"center\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>AA: Alison, you have written a book based on your expeditions and as an adventurer yourself with the\u00a0Adventure Grand Slam (7 Summits &amp; both Poles) &#8212; what touched you about Pasang\u2019s story as a fellow female adventurer?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AL:\u00a0Many things touched me about her story. First: I have always felt that it&#8217;s important to honor the people who put forth the effort in order to break trail for others. Pasang did that in so many ways. I admire her sense of determination and her courage more than words can express.\u00a0 And then of course I can relate to her because I know how it feels to be part of a high-profile Everest expedition (2002 American Women&#8217;s Everest Expedition) and not make the summit &#8212; and then feeling like you let people down. It took me eight years to get up enough courage to go back and try again. Pasang went back four times and was never discouraged. Wow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AA: Alison, when you summited Everest in 2010, do feel women, especially Sherpani are more accepted on Everest than in Pasang&#8217;s time?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AL: Absolutely!\u00a0 There are so many Sherpani just absolutely crushing it out there in the mountains now. Look at Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita, Dawa Yangzum Sherpa, and Maya Sherpa. They are out there taking on some of the toughest 8000m peaks on the planet.And every time I read about them I just do a happy dance (I think I may have actually torn my Goretex pants with my crampons in the process :-)). And we have great interview footage in the film where Sherpani women who have sumitted Everest talk about how Pasang motivated them to climb &#8212;\u00a0 and that&#8217;s a testament to how things are different today. And Pasang is the reason things are different now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AA: Nancy, what has been the largest challenge telling Pasang&#8217;s story beyond funds?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NS: Had Pasang lived, I would be connected to her through marriage. \u00a0Pasang\u2019s family has been extremely generous in turning over everything they have in the way of archival material to me, but honestly that is still not very much material. \u00a0I have no photos or videos of Pasang as a child as her family was too poor to have a camera. \u00a0Her Everest expeditions\u00a0didn\u2019t include the budget for a\u00a0cinematographer. \u00a0 Much of the video I do have of Pasang is from Nepali TV &#8211; press conferences she held, coverage of her massive funeral in the streets of Kathmandu. \u00a0I have conducted an extensive search for still photos of her. \u00a0 I have so many friends and family telling me of her warmth,\u00a0charisma and beauty in interviews &#8211; but making her come alive for the audience has been a true challenge. \u00a0Helping the audience connect emotionally with Pasang has been my biggest challenge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AA: Nancy, what impression do you think Pasang would have wanted viewers of the film to have after watching it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NS:\u00a0\u00a0I think Pasang\u2019s dream was, yes to summit Everest, but in the bigger context it was to be allowed the same opportunities as women and men coming from more advantaged economic and cultural backgrounds. \u00a0She didn\u2019t want to be confined by the cultural norms of her birth. \u00a0She chose to climb Mt. Everest as it was, for an uneducated Sherpa woman, THE way to make her world bigger and have a seat at the proverbial table. \u00a0I know Pasang would be deeply moved and proud of all the advances Sherpa and Nepali women have made in the decades since her death. \u00a0I think Pasang would hope for men and women watching the film to be inspired to reach for\u00a0\u201ctheir own Everest\u201d in whatever the situation in their own lives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AA: Ang Dorjee, you knew Pasang as she was growing up. What three words would you use to describe her?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dorjee: \u00a0Humble, kind and a leader<\/p>\n<p><strong>AA : Ang Dorjee, can you help us understand her impact on the young ladies throughout Nepal?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dorjee: \u00a0She proved to young women that no matter what obstacles were in her way, with education or without education, if you pursue your dream,\u00a0you can do it. \u00a0She was inspirational for all women in Nepal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/148161398\" width=\"640\" height=\"487\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Nancy and Alison for working to honor and keep Pasang&#8217;s legacy alive.<\/p>\n<p>Let me end this post the way I started:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Let me say on a personal note, that the more I dug into this story, the more I join the chorus that it must be told. If you read nothing else, watch the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglassceilingmovie.com\/trailer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trailer<\/a> .. then I bet you will come back and read the rest of this post and make a donation &#8211; I have.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Please visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiegogo.com\/projects\/the-glass-ceiling-documentary#\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Glass Ceiling&#8217;s Indiegogo page<\/a> to learn more and make a donation<\/p>\n<p>Climb On!<br \/>\nAlan<br \/>\nMemories are Everything<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>She had a dream &#8211; Pasang Lhamu Sherpa wanted to\u00a0be the first Nepali woman to summit Everest and in 1993 she did [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":28193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7,147,81],"tags":[496],"class_list":["post-28185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climbing-news","category-everest","category-everest-news","tag-pasang-lhamu-sherpa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Pasang-Hero-Edited.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}