Compile: Mintina
Ngawang Kampot: Heart of a Tiger is the story of a beloved but almost unknown Sherpa.
Photo courtesy of: mntnfilm.com
While watching the 46-minute documentary, Ngawang Kampot: Heart of the Tiger, on the YouTube video platform, I realized that before me, the film had only been played 151 times. It's simply ridiculous that the video of a man using a chainsaw to open the cap was viewed 3,234,053 times.
Images of young Ngawang Kampot during the Everest expedition in 1953
Photo courtesy of: © Video screenshot of the film "Ngawang Kampot: Heart of the Tiger"
Ngawang Kampot is Danzin. Norgai's nephew and one of the ten great Sherpas in the history of world mountaineering (www.2himalaya.com, the ten great Sherpas in the history of world mountaineering). As a documentary, Awang Kampot: Heart of the Tiger clearly has some unsatisfactory aspects, but based on its content, this film should have more attention.
It's a treasure trove of historical image archives, and to document the life of this brilliant climber, the film includes a large number of interviews: in the sixties, seventies and eighties, the top and outstanding American and Indian mountaineering groups, almost his entire family, and his friends of the same year. From time to time, because people use different words to express the same meaning, after one comment after another, people may be distracted or feel that the words are constantly repeated. However, you can learn the core: Ngawang Kampot is loved and respected by everyone who knows him. And the positive side of these cute anecdotes is to help the film portray his character traits.
The narration of the documentary is somewhat strangely croaky. And the opening part is also slightly unpleasant. The narrative of the first 60 seconds attempts to answer the eternal question of why people climb.
Photo courtesy of: mntnfilm.com
Why do we do anything? Why do you ski? We heard a voice speak, apparently annoyed by the problem.
I might add: Why watch celebrity baking contests, or TV talent shows, rank amateurs? In mountaineering, this question is asked repeatedly, and there are already enough answers that people can talk about. We don't need to continue asking questions.
As for Ngawang Kampot, this question was later answered in more detail, but it was not informative, so we even forgot about the question itself. He was a Sherpa, and although he loved his job, he climbed mainly to earn an income and provide better living conditions for the children by having them study at school. This is the same reason why Sherpa still does the same job today. As danzeng. Norgey's nephew, Kampot, has a very direct connection to the pioneers of the mountaineering world, and his educated descendants prove in interviews with the film that this is a path to success.
Asking questions, Friends and Family of Kampot recounted his early life. He grew up in a location near the village of Thame in the Khumbu/Khumbu region of Nepal, and as a child he was sent to Rongbu Monastery in what was then China to be trained as a monk. He hated days like that. If the children forgot to chant, the people inside the temple beat them with sticks, and a year later he fled and returned to Nepal through the Nampara Pass. This has led more than five people to go out of their way to explain that passing through a glacier-covered mountain pass is such an amazing achievement for an 11-year-old. This may be true for western children, but the Nampala Pass was the main trade route between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China at the time. It's true that there are plenty of cracks in the ice here; but at least on the side of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, the climb isn't as difficult.
Kampot went to Darjeeling, where his uncle Danzin took great care of him. Kampot was extremely strong, and although he was only slightly over five feet (1.52 m) tall, his shoulders were as broad as a bucket.
At the age of 17, Kampot was scolded by John Hunt for carrying only a bottle of auxiliary oxygen during the 1953 British Everest expedition. We also learned that this character trait has accompanied him throughout his life; Kampot is willing to express his desires, but he is not sleek and sophisticated — one of his daughters says, "he's outspoken" — but people call it a good quality.
Kampot became a coach at the Darjeeling Himala Aunt Mountaineering School (HMI), an institution established by then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru after Danzeng summited Mount Everest in 1953, with Danzeng heading the field training department. HMI has brought Kampot to know many American and Indian adventure organizers. In 1954, he traveled to Makalu with Willi Unsoeld and Will Siri from the United States, and in 1960 he and an Indian expedition team reached Mount Everest at an altitude of 8,600 meters above sea level.
In 1963, Kampot joined the U.S. Everest Expedition, an expedition that made him and a number of American climbers star. Historically, the most impressive climb was the first ascent of Unsoeld and Tom Hornbein on the west ridge of the mountain, from where they crossed to reach the summit and retreated down the southeast ridge of the peak (the traditional route of the peak).
Jim Whittaker, left and Kampot
Source: cnn.com
In short, at that time, Kampot and Jim Whittaker reached the summit along the southeast ridge of the mountain, which caused great concern. Tall at 6 feet 5 inches (1.98 m), Whittaker is 1 foot (30 cm) taller than Kampot, and their combination seems strange, but the two succeed together, becoming the first American to stand on top of the world and the second Sherpas, respectively. Whittaker is interviewed for a long time in the film and tells their gentlemanly dialogue, and when they go to the top, the two say, "You go first" and "No, you go first." Eventually, they reached the top together, avoiding the childish controversy of Danzin and Hillary climbing.
Ngawang Kampot became the second Sherpa to summit Mount Everest during a 1963 U.S. expedition
Photo courtesy of: © Video screenshot of the film "Ngawang Kampot: Heart of the Tiger"
After the expedition, Kampot and his four teammates went to the United States. They met President Kennedy, and Whittaker revealed a story in which they asked the president to feel the power of Kampot's thighs. Sherpa traveled through the United States in a huge Cadillac car. The police stopped them to check for speeding, and after they were released, they complained, "Officer, don't you know who we are?" ”
President Kennedy receives Ngawang Kampot
Photo courtesy of: jimwhittaker.com
Kampot returned to Darjeeling and became famous. In 1965, he was invited to join an Indian expedition to Mount Everest. He asked them this question: "I have already reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1963. Why did I go back there repeatedly? ”
The government offered scholarships and a plot of land to one of his two children. Promises were made to leave him a spot on the first team to reach the top. That was enough to get him to agree. In May of that year, he stood at the top again, a historic achievement, and Colonel Narender 'Bull' Kumar said in an interview with a big smile:
"I used to be very proud to introduce him as the only person in the world who has successfully climbed Mount Everest twice."
The second half of the film largely focuses on his post-Kampot job as a mountain guide in the United States (he also became the first to summit Denali/McKinley, the highest peak in North America, Sherpas).
Phil Ershle, one of the founders of International Mountain Guides (IMG), a well-known American expedition company, shared the story of what happened in Mount Rainier when he was just working as a guide. Nervously looking around the crowded peak huts, "looking like a lost puppy," he tried to find an empty bunk, at which point Kampot — now a deng legend — put his mat and sleeping bag on top of a pile of ropes and said, "Phil, you sleep here." With admiration in his eyes, Ershler summed up the experience in this sentence:
"This is how I got to know Ngawang Kampot."
Jim Whittaker, left and Kampot
Photo courtesy of: jimwhittaker.com
The film ends with his son and daughter missing their father. They talk about tourists appearing at their home in Darjeeling as if it were a pilgrimage temple. As a child, he asked them to write to him in English, to agree to help people promote him, or to make recommendations. He is an active member of the Sherpas Buddhist Association, an organization originally founded by the Sherpas Mountaineers Association to help Sherpas families who were injured or killed in mountaineering accidents.
The ending is quite touching. Kampot died in 2011 and is still remembered by many. One of his daughters, Marwah, Zhta Kampot, became a climber herself, and in 1984 she arrived at a site 183 meters from the summit of Mount Everest, where she was forced to turn back due to a storm approaching. It's a passage she says on behalf of her mother, and both of them lose their voices in pain as she completes it.
"He was really hard working, compassionate, and he was always willing to help people... He cares for everyone, not only his family, but also the rest of the group. ”
Jim Wickwire, the first American to successfully climb Chogory/K2, summed up her character best, and in 1982 he went with Kampot to the north slopes of Mount Everest. At that time, Kampot promised his family that he would not try and would not go to the top, even though he only had more than forty at that time, strong enough. Wickwire says:
"He was a wonderful companion to the summit and never seemed depressed. He's always positive and always motivated, and that's the guy you want to be with on an expedition. ”
When you see this, it's easy to overlook a lot of small flaws and unsatisfactory features in the film. All the image archives and interviews have become a wonderful historical record, which is a tribute to a great climber who deserves to be remembered.
This article is an excerpt from Mark Horrell's new book, Sherpa's Hospitality Is a Cure for Frostbite, and his high-profile blog, Footsteps on the Mountain, tells the story of the transformation of Sherpa mountaineers, from a porter in early adventures to a super-obvious shift in the modern climbing world.
Source: Mark Horrell