Assignment:
The Effect of Tourism on the Sherpa Community, Environment and Religion
For my last exploratory paper, I investigated some of the influences from western world that have affected different aspects of the Sherpa community in Khumbu. More specifically, I examined how western mountaineering and cultigen, artificially selected crop with commercial value, had affected and changed in the Sherpa economic system and traditional agro-pastoral culture. From paper 1, I found that one of the essential difference in the Sherpas' economy was the addition and rise of ecological tourism that came with mountaineering. With their local tourism as a portal, the Sherpas began to integrate their economy into the global market economy, and this can lead to a lot of changes in the traditional life of the Sherpas (Fisher, 38; Spoon, 41; Stevens, 410). So, to narrow down my topic, I plan to ask how the development of tourism influenced the Sherpas. This paper would focus findings in environmental, social and cultural changes including impacts on natural environment, introduction of medicine and education system, traditional religion, and culture of the Sherpas due to the influence of tourism. Some of the reasons that this question matters are because Sherpa traditional lifestyle and culture may be affected as the cost of modernization that comes with tourism (Spoon, 41) and that their ecological tourism may not be stable without proper management on sustainable environmental development and protection (Byers, 135; Pawson et al, 246; Sharma; Stevens, 426). Multiple research sources are sorted into their related topics mentioned above and presented in this paper.
One of the issues that has continuously been associated with Mount Everest tourism is the environmental impacts due to tourism-related activities. With the increase of tourists to the area, fire wood/ fuel wood for heat, food and lodging also surged (Stevens, 426). Though many believe that this is the cause for deforestation in the Khumbu area, Ivan G. Pawson, an anthropologist, and his team noted that "the growth of tourism in Khumbu during the past 12 years has occurred without significant deterioration of the region's delicate environment" and that "extensive deforestation in many parts of what is now the Sagarmatha National Park appears to have originated long before the onset of the tourist influx in the early 1970s" (p. 244). Pawson et al's claim on environmental impacts is shared by another researcher, Stanley Stevens. While both acknowledged that deforestation is not caused by tourism, Stevens added that past observations on the areas of deforestation have falsely attributed forest clearing to tourism and that many areas are the result "from the undermining of local forest management by governmental forest nationalization and the establishment of the national park rather than from tourism" (p. 422).
However, the aligned view of Pawson et al and Stevens greatly contrasted with that of an article by Alton C. Byers, an alpine researcher. Byer stated that "overharvesting of fragile alpine shrubs and plants for fuel, corridors of overgrazing, accelerated erosion, and uncontrolled lodge building, processes that, although insidious, continue to threaten the viability of the high altitude Khumbu ecosystems" and that these were the outcome of a poorly controlled tourism (Byers, 112). By conducting an integrated analysis and analyzing geographical data collected by five distinct expeditions, Byers further found that adventure tourism not only caused impacts in Khumbu, but also to the whole Everest massif's alpine zone landscape (Byers, 134). Moreover, Byers's view of tourism's negative impacts was further asserted in the case studies done by Pitamber Sharma, a noted scholar. In his book, Sharma presented how hazardous and intensive tourism development can cause pollution, abuse of natural resources and environmental damages at several tourist locations in Nepal(Sharma). Even though Pawson et al and Stevens have disparate views with Byers and Sharma, all four articles stressed the importance of proper management of natural resources in Khumbu for a better, sustainable tourism in order to protect the environment (Byers, 135; Pawson et al, 246; Sharma; Stevens, 426).
Besides the effects on the environment, the Sherpa community has also undergone changes in development and infrastructure that resulted from tourism. As the tourism industry boomed, so did the economical development and the living standards of the Sherpas (Stevens, 417). However, according to both the study by Dr. Susan Heydon and the field research done by Gyan Nyaupane, tourism was not the only factor in the development in either education system or health care system. Both authors mentioned that Sir Edmund Hillary and the Himalayan Trust also had a key role in introducing modern medicine and western style education (Heydon, 504; Nyaupane). For medicine and health care, Heydon stated that the Khunde Hospital, built by Hillary, and the "economic development of the region" (p. 521) due to tourism together contributed to the growth and increased accessibility of modern medicine for the Sherpas. Not only can Sherpas now afford to purchase medicine with tourism income, most tourists visiting the area often donated their personal medicine to the Sherpa healthcare clinics before leaving Khumbu (Heydon, 519).
As for education, Nyaupane also recognized the importance of Hillary to the Sherpas since he built the first and another 26 schools in the area (p.425). He further stressed the importance of education for the Sherpas which is also examined by anthropologist James Fisher. Fisher supported the same claim as Nyaupane. He believes that "Educated Sherpas can excel in the guiding business" and showed that Sherpas like "Ang Rita, who is now executive director of Sir Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Trust, can move beyond it [being a porter or trekker]" (p. 38). Though both Nyaupane and Fisher promotes education, Nyaupane discovered, through interviewing local Sherpas, that since schools are taught in Nepali, they "are seen to be instrumental in the decline of Sherpa culture" (p.426).
Other cultural aspects of the Sherpa life that were influenced by tourism are their traditions and religion. Most studies agreed that the culture of the Sherpas are not lost and that many customs and traditions remained intact, if not slightly influence (Stevens, 425). According to Stevens, profits and efforts from mountaineering tourism were "spent in affirming faith" by restoring, expanding and building temples and shrines (Stevens, 424). Stevens, as well as in Fisher's study, noted that the "Sherpas have been coping well with tourism and have used their new wealth to maintain many distinctive and valued aspects of their lifestyles and customs" (424). Although Nyaupane also accepts this, the interviews in his study also pointed out that some Sherpas believe that the younger generations are no longer as religious and that younger Sherpas are learning more about religion in order to introduce tourists to their culture (p431). Sherpas are also concerned that their faith and culture are "commodified through its interaction with the tourism economy" (p.441). Similar discoveries are also presented by Jeremy Spoon. In his article, Spoon discussed how "tourism also appeared to reinforce and remake knowledge depending on how pragmatic or lucrative the knowledge was" (p. 53) by studying the goddess, Jomo Miyo Lang Sangma. According to Spoon, the goddess who used to be worshipped for necessities and food, is now in charge of bringing more tourists (Spoon, 47). Both Nyaupane and Spoon's results agreed that cultural and spiritual knowledge of the younger generations of Sherpas seemed to be in decline and were often limited to tourism related topics (Nyaupane, 430; Spoon, 50).
In conclusion, there were two sides on the environmental issue caused by tourism. On one hand, Stevens and Pawson et al noted that deforestation preexisted, while on the other hand, Byers and Sharma presented the negative impact of tourism on the environment. However, all four sources called for the need of improving sustainability in Khumbu. Other tourism caused changes includes improvement in accessibility of medicine and education according to Heydon and Nyaupane. With the help of Sir Edmund Hillary as well as the economical gains from tourism, health care and education quality in Khumbu are more modernized and the Sherpas are positive about these changes (Nyaupane, 438; Heydon, 507). For traditional culture and faith, some part of the religion has been observed to be influenced and remade by tourism (Nyaupane, 427; Spoon, 54). Even though the Sherpas are investing profits from tourism to help conserve them, younger generations are believed to be less knowledgeable about their culture and religion(Nyaupane, 430; Stevens, 424). For my research paper, I believe that sources that include Sherpas opinions such as Nyaupane's study can be potentially more useful for my research paper in which I would like to ask whether the changes in the Sherpa community resulted from Mount Everest tourism are positive or negative.
Work Cited
Byers, Alton. "Contemporary Human Impacts on Alpine Ecosystems in the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park, Khumbu, Nepal." Annals of the Association of American Geographers, PDF ed., vol. 95, no. 1, Mar. 2005, pp. 112-40.
Fisher, James F. "Has success spoiled the Sherpas?" Natural History, vol. 100, no. 2, Feb. 1991, p. 38.
Heydon, Susan. "Medicines, Travellers and the Introduction and Spread of 'Modern' Medicine in the Mt Everest Region?of Nepal." Medical History, vol. 55, 2011, pp. 503-521,
Nyaupane, Gyan P. "Perceptions of Trekking Tourism and Social and Environmental Change in Nepal's Himalayas." Tourism Geographies, vol. 16, no. 3, May 2014, pp. 415-37.
Pawson, Ivan G., et al. "Growth of Tourism in Nepal's Everest Region: Impact on the Physical Environment and Structure of Human Settlements." Mountain Research and Development, vol. 4, no. 3, 1984, pp. 237-246.
Sharma, Pitamber. Tourism as Development: Case Studies from the Himalaya. Himal Books, 2000.
Spoon, Jeremy."Tourism, Persistence, and Change: Sherpa Spirituality and Place in Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park and Buffer Zone, Nepal." Journal of Ecological Anthropology, vol. 15, no. 1, 2011, pp. 41-57.
Stevens, Stanley F. "Tourism, change, and continuity in the Mount Everest Region, Nepal." Geographical Review, vol. 83, no. 4, Oct. 1993.