Ang Tharkay

Ang Tharkay

Ang Tharkay in 1935 on the Everest expedition
Personal information
Main discipline	Sherpa
Born	1907 Khumbu, Nepal
Died	28 July 1981 (aged about 74) Kathmandu, Nepal
Nationality	Nepalese
Career
Starting age	24 years
Starting discipline	Porter
Famous partnerships	Eric Shipton
Family
Spouse	Ang Yangjin

Ang Tharkay (1907 – 28 July 1981) was a Nepalese mountain climber and explorer who acted as sherpa and later sirdar for many Himalayan expeditions. He was "beyond question the outstanding sherpa of his era" and he introduced Tenzing Norgay to the world of mountaineering.

Ang Tharkay (his name is also often written Angtharkay or Angtarkay) was born in 1907 to a poor family in Kunde, just north of Namche Bazaar in the Solukhumbu district of Nepal, near Mount Everest. Hoping to make a living as a mountaineering porter, like many ambitious boys of his era living near Everest, at the age of twelve he migrated to Darjeeling in India which was where many expeditions selected sherpas and porters.

He was married to Ang Yangjin and they had a daughter and four sons. He was well-built though only about 5 feet (1.5 m) tall. In 1954 the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling sent him to Switzerland on a technical climbing course. In 1954 he set up his own trekking business in Darjeeling and published his autobiography Mémoires d'un Sherpa. He also became a successful road building contractor in western Sikkim.

When he retired from active mountaineering around 1962 he returned to Nepal to farm a large area of land to the south of Kathmandu. He then started another trekking agency Nepal Trekking. He died of cancer in Kathmandu in 1981.

The first time Ang Tharkay was chosen for an expedition was in 1931 by a German party for Kangchenjunga. He was then included in the team for British attempt on Everest in 1933 where he became honoured as one of the "Tigers" – one who carried to over 27,000 feet (8,200 m).Eric Shipton, who had also been in the 1933 party, selected him (effectively as sirdar) for the 1934 Nanda Devi exploration as well as for Shipton's return visit to Nanda Devi in 1936 – he had not been available when Bill Tilman was recruiting sherpas for the 1936 ascent of Nanda Devi. There were two occasions on the 1934 expedition when Shipton credits him with finding a route when everyone else had thought they would have to turn back.