Four centuries in the valleys below the Nangpa La.
The Sherpa moved from eastern Tibet into the Khumbu some four centuries ago, settling the valleys below the Nangpa La — the salt route to Tibet that kept the region connected long before anyone came to climb.
Khumjung, Khunde, Thame, Pangboche and Namche are the old settlements. Namche was the trading town; the others farmed barley, buckwheat and potatoes on terraces that are still worked.
Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit. The expedition was carried up the valley by Sherpa porters and climbers, and the relationship that built modern Khumbu began there.
Hillary's trusts built the schools and the Khunde hospital. Khumbu's families have been sending their children to school, and their climbers to the high camps, ever since.
Lodges, guiding and portering are the valley's economy, and the landscape carries both the wealth and the wear of it. Khumbu Live is meant to keep some of that knowledge in the valley's own hands.