YOUNGEST EVEREST CLIMBER: 13-YEAR-OLD JORDAN ROMERO
Youngest person to climb Mount Everest is Jordan Romero from the United States. He summitted Everest when he was 13 years, 10 months, 10 days old on May 22, 2010. After Romero broke the record, David Harrison wrote in The Telegraph: “He is a curly-haired schoolboy barely in his teens. As his climbing team hugged each other and shed tears of joy on the summit, the boy from California rang his mother on a satellite phone to tell her: "Mom, I'm calling you from the top of the world." Jordan had promised to do some algebra homework during the trip but that was far from his mind as he celebrated his record-breaking achievement. The teenager from the town of Big Bear left a charm, a rabbit's foot, on the summit and planted seeds that a Buddhist monk at a local monastery had given him for luck. [Source: David Harrison, The Telegraph, May 22, 2010]
“His mother Leigh Anne Drake, who had watched her son's progress on a GPS tracker online, was thrilled and relieved that he was safe and well after the seven-day climb. “There were lots of tears and 'I love you! I love you!'" she said. "I just told him to get his butt back home." Mrs Drake was not altogether surprised that her son had reached the 29,035 summit: Everest was the latest success in Jordan's quest to conquer the Seven Summits, the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. He said he was inspired by a painting of the summits in his school's hallway.
“The mountainering prodigy climbed Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro when he was 10, and has only to scale the Vinson Massif in Antarctica to complete the Seven Summits. In his blog he had described scaling Everest as "the biggest goal of my life". The Everest climb — his first above 26,240 feet — was controversial, sparking a debate about child climbers and parental responsibility. Nepal insists that Everest climbers have to be 16, but Team Jordan went to base camp on the Chinese side where there are no age restrictions.
Jordan climbed Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa in 2006; Elbrus in Russia, Europe, and Aconcagua, Argentina, South America in 2007; Denali in Alaska, North America, 2008; Carstenz Pyramid, Indonesia, Oceania, 2009; and Everest, Asia: 2010.When the Everest celebrations are over the young climber will turn his sights to Antarctica and his seventh summit which he will tackle in December. "A piece of cake," his mother said. Jordan was not, however, the only Everest record-breaker” that day. Apa Sherpa, 50, climbed the mountain for the 20th time, surpassing his own record.
Jordan Romero’s Ascent of Everest
David Harrison wrote in The Telegraph: Jordan said it might take him "many attempts" and "a couple of years" to climb Everest but had declared himself "very prepared emotionally, and definitely physically", although he said he would turn back if it became dangerous. His team was made up of three Nepalese sherpas, his father, Paul, who is a mountaineer and paramedic, and his stepmother, Karen Lundgren, an experienced mountaineer. On May 13th the team was preparing to leave base camp. "Jordan has displayed all the patience and maturity in the world. Body and mind is ready," Ed Alta, a team member wrote on Jordan's blog. "We are on a 48-hour countdown. This means leaving Base Camp for the big trek to the foothill, then it's on. All in all, it's a 5-7 day climb. Team is very ready, weather is about to be in our favour." [Source: David Harrison, The Telegraph, May 22, 2010]
Jordan wrote: "Today I leave base camp...and every step I take is finally toward the biggest goal of my life, to stand on top of the world... I feel in some way I have succeeded in just getting this far, but on the other hand I am drawn to do something great. Know that it comes from my heart. I hope to make you all proud." By May 19 the team had reached Camp1/North Col where temperatures fell to -24C. "All is well," the team blogged. "We are waiting out the high winds before our next move." That night the team made it to Camp 2, at 24,750 ft, after a gruelling nine-hour trek that saw them climb less than 2,000ft.
The next day :”he team called on their satellite phone to say that they had stopped for tea, everything was going well and they were ahead of schedule. The clouds were clearing and they could see the ridgeline all the way to the summit. "It looked absolutely amazing." they said "The team is using oxygen for this part of the climb. Everyone is strong; especially Jordan." They made it to "Step 1" (27,890ft) and considered an attempt on the summit. "After years of preparation, determination and hard work, Jordan is finally approaching the summit and about to realise his ultimate dream," the team wrote.
Later, “a spokesman for the team, in the United States, announced: "The team just called in and confirmed that they are standing on top of Mt. Everest — the highest peak in the world. Their dreams have now come true. Everyone sounded unbelievably happy."The team had reached the summit hours earlier than expected and Jordan had broken the record to become the youngest person to scale Everest. Rob Bailey, the team's spokesman, in the United States, said: "The team hugged each other and said, 'I love you, I can't believe we're finally here' and started crying." The teenager and his team expect to return to advance base camp in a couple of days.
Malavath Poorna, Youngest Female Everest Climber, Misses Youngest Mark by 35 Days
Malavath Poorna — a low caste Dalit (Untouchable) girl — is youngest female to summit Everest, the youngest to climb Everest from the more difficult Tibetan side and the second youngest person overall. Poorna (also spelled Purna) climbed Mount Everest when she 13 years, 11 months, 15 days old on May 25, 2014, making her about a month older than Jordan Romero, the youngest Everest climber.
After she performed the feat, Anoo Bhuyan of the BBC wrote: Malavath Poorna said she felt "great" on reaching the summit. She hoisted the Indian flag at the summit and also left a photograph of Dalit leader BR Ambedkar there. Officials says her achievement is even more impressive as she climbed the peak from the more difficult Tibetan side. Most climbers attempt the 8,848-meter (29,029-ft) Everest from the Nepalese side, which is easier, but Nepal does not allow climbers under 16 years of age to scale the world's tallest mountain. [Source: Anoo Bhuyan, BBC News, May 28, 2014]
Poorna did the climb with Shekhar Babu, an experienced mountaineer, her friend Anand Kumar, a 16 year-old-boy from a poor family like hers, and a group of sherpas. "I was initially afraid, but the training I received helped me overcome my fear. I never thought of giving up," Malavath told the BBC, speaking on a satellite phone from Everest base camp . “The aim of my expedition was to inspire young people and students from my kind of background. For a tribal like me, opportunities are very rare and I was looking for one opportunity where I could prove my calibre," she says. The thing that bothered her the most during her climb was "eating packed food" and she says she sorely missed her mother's cooking, especially her fried chicken.
“Just three days after her arrival at Everest base camp on 15 April, a deadly avalanche on the Nepalese side of the mountain killed 16 sherpas, but Poorna says the tragedy did not deter her from scaling the peak. Of the view from the top of the world, she says: "All around me were mountains. It was very beautiful."
Life of Malavath Poorna
Poorna was born in Pakala, a small tribal village in Nizamabad district of Telangana state, in June 2000. Both parents work as agricultural laborers and together make about 35,000 rupees (US$595) a year. Egged on her parents and teachers at her local village school, run by the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society. Her talent was spotted by the secretary of the Society Dr. Repalle Shiva Praveen Kumar IPS. Poorna was selected to participate in a mountaineering training program along with Sadhanapalli Anand Kumar, who also did the Everest trip. In preparation for her Everest climb, she trekked and trained in mountains near Darjeeling and in Ladakh. [Source: BBC, Wikipedia]
Julia Felsenthal wrote in Vogue: “Malavath derives from a nomadic tribe that’s now settled in a rural community in the southern state of Telangana. Her parents are very poor agricultural laborers, subsisting on 2,000 rupees a month, which is roughly equivalent to a dollar a day, well below India’s poverty line.
Poorna, is “a bird-boned girl with a long braid. She’s wearing skinny jeans and sneakers under her blue tee. There are tiny studs in her ears, a thin, feminine chain around her neck, and a small silver-tone bracelet around one wrist. Her backpack dwarfs her. She bashfully shakes my hand with slender fingers and gives me a broad smile full of gleamingly white, too-big-for-her-mouth teeth, the kind you only find on adolescents awaiting their growth spurt. Her English is far from perfect, but we bumble along [Source: Julia Felsenthal, Vogue, September 29, 2015]
Malavath “attends a state-run boarding school — called an Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential School — for underprivileged kids with qualifying test scores. The secretary of her school system is a man named Dr. R.S. Praveen Kumar, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who got a master’s in public administration at Harvard, then returned to attempt to reform the schools that serve his country’s poorest kids. He imagined the Everest expedition as a sort of social welfare — oriented My Fair Lady experiment: If he could transform a Dalit girl, among India’s least privileged citizens, into an elite mountain climber, enable her to reach the highest point on earth, what rousing effect might that have on the rest of his country’s disadvantaged youth? “I’m a sports girl,” Malavath says of why she was picked to be one of more than 100 students in her school system to receive rock-climbing training. In her regular life she plays volleyball and an Indian sport called kabaddi. She wants to take up cricket, but the U.N. trip got in the way. “I play games well,” she says. “That’s why they selected me.”
“When the second cut came, Malavath was one of 20 sent to Darjeeling for ice- and snow-climbing training. It was there that her coach, Shekhar Babu, who summited Everest in 2007, showed her some videos of the mountain. She knew nothing of Everest before she began training. I ask if the videos frightened her, but she insists they gave her confidence. “I wanted to prove that girls could do anything, that social welfare students could do anything.”
Fame of Malavath Poorna and Her Impact on India’s Poor
On a visit by Malavath to New York, Julia Felsenthal wrote in Vogue: “ Malavath, who became a minor celebrity in India after the successful climb, is in town for some meetings related to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Summit. She’s been brought here by the advocacy group Nine Is Mine, a campaign for children’s rights that is petitioning the Indian government to allocate more of the country’s GDP toward education and health. [Source: Julia Felsenthal, Vogue, September 29, 2015]
“Malavath’s schedule is packed: She spoke at the U.N. to ambassadors from India, Kenya, and Ireland, and at UNICEF. She attended a UNICEF meeting about social media and participated in at least one drumming demonstration. There are rumblings about a seminar on Long Island later this evening. When we finally do meet up — after a couple days of trading emails with one handler, a series of miscommunications with another, and a half hour of wandering aimlessly around Times Square — it becomes somewhat clear why this get-together has been hard to arrange. “There!”“ We see “a handful of adults and a soccer team’s worth of children, several of them visibly handicapped. Somebody’s filming. There’s a lot of stopping to take photos.
“The kids represent some of India’s most disadvantaged, explains Steve Rocha, one of the campaign’s organizers: Among their number are Dalit, or untouchables, India’s lowest caste. Some belong to tribal groups. There is at least one visually impaired girl. One kid is wearing hearing aids. One has a deformity of his arms or shoulders. “India has one-third of the world’s poorest people,” Rocha says. “Two hundred million children in India are malnourished.”
Malavath Poorna’s Everest Ascent
Julia Felsenthal wrote in Vogue: “The Everest summit, which Malavath attempted with only one other student, a 17-year-old boy named Anand Kumar from a different district, took 52 days. In the lead-up, Malavath says, they prepared physically and mentally for three months, jogging daily, meditating, and doing yoga. [Source: Julia Felsenthal, Vogue, September 29, 2015]
“Nothing could have prepared her for what happened when they actually got onto the mountain. There are two ways to summit Everest: from the south in Nepal, and from the north in Tibet, which is controlled by China. Nepal has a strict 16-and-over policy for Everest expeditions; China does not. So Malavath’s team attempted from the Tibetan side. While they were acclimatizing at base camp, they got news that an expedition on the Nepalese side had been caught in an avalanche and 16 Sherpas had died. But Malavath didn’t think of turning back. “We are Swaeroes,” she tells me, referring to an influential alumni organization for her school system. “We don’t have reverse gears. The sky is the limit. That’s the motto.”
“Later, when she encountered six dead bodies nearly 11,000 feet up the mountain, she again took comfort in what she calls the “Swaeroes 10 Commandments,” which include such bolstering sentiments as “I am not inferior to anyone” and “I shall always think big and aim high.” “I was scared,” she admits. “But at the time, I remembered my parents, my teachers. I wanted to complete the dream of my secretary, Praveen Kumar.” I ask if she cried, and she laughs and shakes her head. “No, no, no.”
“When she summited, she hoisted the Indian national flag, the Telangana flag, and the Swaeroes flag. A day later she was able to call her parents, whom she sees only once a month, by satellite phone. “They felt very happy,” she tells me. She remembers they cried joyful tears, but can’t recall what else they told her.
“Prying details about the actual expedition from Malavath is difficult. There’s a language barrier; she’s got a teenager’s timid reluctance to answer questions; and she has an endearing quality of talking with her hands instead of actually verbalizing her thoughts. (I keep worrying for the safety of my tape recorder and her fountain drink.) “The whole expedition is very dangerous and very difficult,” she tells me, twisting a thick rubber band, printed with the hashtag #casteoutcast, around her wrist.
Malavath Poorna’s Life After the Everest Ascent
Malavath attended Minnesota State University, Mankato in the U.S. and completed the “Six Summits”: Mount Everest (Asia, 2014), Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa, 2016), Mount Elbrus (Europe, 2017), Mount Aconcagua (South America, 2019), Mount Cartsnez Pyramid (Oceania region, 2019), the Vinshon Massif (Antarctica, 2019).
On her life, a year a few months after the Everest ascent, Felsenthal wrote in Vogue: “ Some things, she tells me, are back to normal: She hasn’t done any mountain climbing in the year and a half since leaving Everest, focusing instead on her studies (current topics: math, physics, and chemistry) in hopes of one day following in the footsteps of Kumar and becoming an IPS officer. Once she graduates, she’d like to take on other peaks, Kilimanjaro and K2 specifically. [Source: Julia Felsenthal, Vogue, September 29, 2015]
“Some things are quite different: “Before Everest I didn’t know anything about any other cities. I just knew my village and my school,” she tells me. Now she’s traveled all over India. “I met my prime minister, Narendra Modi,” she says excitedly. “I met the chief minister of my state.” Any mountain climbers? Before her Everest bid she was introduced to Arunima Sinha, a former Indian national volleyball player who lost a leg after being pushed from a moving train, and who summited Everest wearing a prosthesis in 2013. “She inspired me a lot,” Malavath says.
“She adds that she would love to meet Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to conquer the mountain, in 1984. Also on her list: “President Obama and Malala [Yousafzai].” Malavath hadn’t heard of Yousafzai until this trip — Malala was also in town for the U.N. summit — and she’s become a big fan. “She has the courage to go against the establishment,” Malavath explains.
“In India, she tells me, girls don’t get a lot of chances to dream big. “Lots of people say, ‘Boys are great!’ ‘Boys can do anything,’ ” Malavath says, getting animated. “They encourage only boys. Girls don’t get encouragement.” (Her parents, she says, were uncharacteristically quite encouraging, as was her older brother.) Since the Everest summit, Malavath’s gotten a lot of letters from students at other schools, telling her how much her success has meant to them. “ ‘You’re great!’ ‘You’ve done a good job!’ ” she remembers. “ ‘As a girl, you proved girls can do anything.’ ” She giggles self-consciously. “ ‘I like you!’ ”
“Our conversation winds down and it’s time for Malavath to go. As she stands, I’m struck again by how delicate and small she seems, like even a dainty gust of wind could lift her off the ground. It’s very hard to imagine her taking on one of the most hostile environments on earth, a mountain that has bested plenty of adults, some of them professionals. It’s also hard to imagine how a group of adults decided it was a good idea to send her.
Oldest Man on Everest: Yuichiro Miura
Oldest people to summit Mt. Everest: Yuichiro Miura (born 1932) — 80 years, 224 days — from Japan on May 23, 2013. He held the record twice before only to have it broken each time.
Min Bahadur Sherchan (born 1931) — 76 years, 340 days — from Nepal in 2008
Yuichiro Miura — 75 years, 227 days — from Japan in 2008
Katsusuke Yanagisawa — 71 years, 61 days — from Japan on May 22, 2007
Takao Arayama — 70 years, 225 days — from Japan in May 2006
Yuichiro Miura — 70 years, 222 days ---- from Japan in May 2003 [Source: Wikipedia]
Miura climbed Everest at age 75 in May 2009 but his record was broken two days later by a Nepalese man who was 76 and 340 days. Miura was the first to ski down Everest. He did it with a drag parachute acting as a brake to prevent him from sliding into the Khumbu Ice Field. Six Sherpas died when part of an ice fall shifted on the Khumbu Ice Field, the most treacherous part of the Everest climb. The entire adventure was chronicled in the Oscar-winning documentary “The Man Who Skied Down Everest”.
Miura reached the of Everest summit for the first time in May 2003 when he was 70. He beat the record of 64-year-old American physician named Sherman Bull, who reached the summit in May 2001, who in turn beat the record set by 63-year-old Japanese climber Toshio Yamamoto in May 1999. In 2003, the same year Miura accomplished his feat, a 73-year-old Texas millionaire, Dick Bass, tried to reach the summit but had to quit because of back problems.
Miura was a high school headmaster from Sapporo. When he reached the summit of Everest in 2003 he he broke the record set in 2001 by another Japanese man, 65-year-old Tomiyasu Ishikawa. Miura also holds the record for being he oldest man to ski down the highest peaks of each of the world's seven continents. He has also skied down Mount Fuji.
In May 2007, 71-year-old retired teacher Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. On reaching the summit he said, “I was pretty much at ease mentally at the summit, like I could sing a song." In May 2008, Miura broke Yanagisawa’s record and became the oldest Japanese to ascend Everest again at the age of 75 be he failed in his bid to be the oldest man to scale Everest when Min Mahadur Sherchan, a 76-year-old Nepalese, made it to the top the previous day. Miura climbed to the summit from the Nepalese side. Restrictions in Tibet following th Olympic torch relay protests in April 2008 prevented him from ascending Everest from the Tibetan side as he had planned.
Yuichiro Miura Summits Everest at Age 80
In May 2013, 80-year-old Yuichiro Miura reached the top of Everest with his physician son Gota, making him the oldest person to summit Everest. Miura broke his hip in an accident two years earlier and underwent heart surgery four months before the feat for an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, his fourth heart operation since 2007. He also broke his pelvis and left thigh bone in a 2009 skiing accident. "I am still healthy and strong. I think I have a good chance to reach the summit of Everest," he said a month before the climb. [Source: Manesh Shrestha, CNN, May 23, 2013]
CNN reported: “To prepare, Miura walked three times a week with loads of 25 to 30 kilograms (55 to 66 lbs) on his back. It was his third time at the top of Everest. He climbed it in 2003 at age 70, and in 2008 at age 75. "I have a dream to climb Everest at this age," he said. "If you have a dream, never give up. Dreams come true."
A few days after topping Everest at 80 Miura said he won't make any further attempts to summit Everest. "I think three times is enough," he said. "At this point I could not think of anything but rest." Associated Press reported: A brief improvement in weather conditions allowed Miura, a Japanese former extreme skier, to fly by helicopter from Everest to Katmandu, Nepal’s capital, three days after he scaled Everest’s 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak. [Source: Binaj Gurubacharya, AP, may 26, 2013]
“Meanwhile, Miura’s 81-year-old rival, Nepalese climber Min Bahadur Sherchan, was at Everest’s base camp preparing to attempt to regain his title as the oldest to conquer the mountain. Sherchan held the record for five years until Miura snatched the title. "I hope his success is good news. I wish him best of luck," Miura said in Japanese, with his son Gota, 43, who reached the top of Everest with his father last week, serving as his interpreter.
“Miura, however, insisted that Sherchan back up any claim of scaling Everest’s peak with clear photographs of the climber showing his face at the summit. “It is not clear whether Sherchan has any sophisticated camera with him that would work at the highest altitude on earth and take high-resolution photographs. Sherchan was already struggling with finances, with Nepal’s government agreeing last week to only $11,200 in aid. While receiving that amount allows him to climb, it likely is not enough to cover the type of support and high-tech equipment that Miura had.
Miura’s Nepalese Rival —a Former Gurka — Dies Trying to Climb Everest at 85
In 2017, 85-year-old climber Min Bahadur Sherchan, who previously held the title for world’s oldest climber to top Mt. Everest, died while attempting to reclaim the record. “He passed away at the base camp today at 5:14 p.m.,” Gyanendra Shrestha, an official with the tourism ministry, said. Everest base camp that sits at 5365 meters (17,600 feet). The cause of Sherchan’s death wasn’t immediately clear, but a heart attack was suspected. [Source: Marissa Payne, Washington Post, May 6, 2017]
Marissa Payne wrote in the Washington Post: This is a sad ending to Sherchan’s exciting climbing career that culminated on May 25, 2008, when he first became the oldest person to scale Mt. Everest at the age of 76 years 340 days. His record was later broken in 2013 when 80-year-old Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura made it to the top. Sherchan said his purpose for making the climb again wasn’t solely to break Miura’s record, however. He said on a GoFundMe page set up to fund his feat that he wanted his latest ascent of Everest to lift “the morale of all people” on Earth, as well as to campaign for “peace” and “protection of [the] Earth.” Born in a remote village in western Nepal in 1931, Sherchan fought for the British Army as a Gurkha soldier in his youth. Before returning to Nepal this year to climb Everest, he had been living in the United Kingdom, where he was a grandfather of 17 and great-grandfather of six, according to the Associated Press.
In 2011, an 82-year-old former Nepal minister died trying to become the oldest person to climb Mt. Everest. The BBC reported: Officials say that Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay, 82, was returning from the mountain to a base camp when he collapsed. Prime Minister Jhala Nath Kanal said that he was shocked by the death which was "a tragic loss for the nation". The cause of the death is thought to be related to altitude sickness. [Source: BBC, May 10, 2011]
The former minister is reported to have complained of health complications when he got to 5,800 meters (19,000 feet). His climbing companions gave him water and oxygen after he collapsed but could not resuscitate him, officials say. As a young political activist he joined Mahatma Gandhi's movement against British rule in India and was imprisoned in December 1960 for protesting against King Mahendra. After serving in government towards the end of the 1960s he was appointed as a permanent representative of Nepal to the UN from 1972-1978, and served as foreign minister from 1986-1990.
73-year-old Japanese Tamae Watanabe: the Oldest Woman to Climb Mt. Everest
The oldest woman to climb Everest is also a Japanese. Tamae Watanabe was 73 years, 180 days when she reached the top of Everest on May 19, 2012. It was the second time she held the record. Susanne Mueller Zantop from Germany broke Watanabe’s record in May 17, 2018. Zantop was 63 years, 297 days when she set the record previously held by Watanabe who was 63 years, 177 days when she summitted Everest on May 16, 2002 [Source: Wikipedia]
In May 2012, The Telegraph reported: A 73-year-old Japanese woman has become the oldest female to scale Mt. Everest, breaking the record she set a decade ago. Tamae Watanabe, a retired office worker who lives at the foot of Mount Fuji, Japan's tallest mountain, led a team of four on the assault on the northern face of Everest. Watanabe and her team set out from their last high-altitude camp, at a height of 27,225 feet, late and climbed all night, Ang Tshering, a sherpa who coached the climbers, told The Daily Telegraph. [Source: The Telegraph, May 21, 2012] “She's a very strong climber and has always been very active," Sherpa Tshering said from the headquarters of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association in Katmandu. "She has always loved the mountains and has been climbing in the Japanese Alps and around the world for many years," he said. Since the mid-1970s Watanabe has climbed some of the most famous mountains in the world, including no fewer than five of the 14 peaks that are more than 26,246 feet high. [Ibid]
Her conquests include Mount McKinley in Alaska, the Eiger in Switzerland and Lhotse, the fourth-tallest mountain in the world, which is also in Nepal. In 2002, she completed her first ascent of Everest to become, at the age of 63, the oldest woman to stand on the peak. The oldest man to reach the summit is Nepalese climber Min Bahadur Sherchan, who was 76 when he completed the climb in 2008.
Ang Tshering said Everest has been buffeted by high winds in recent days but Watanabe and her team had been able to confirm that they were safe and were descending from the peak. The winds are forecast to weaken towards the end of the week and the climbers are expected to have returned to base camp by Saturday. "It has been a very hard climb and it has been made harder by the weather, but she had a good team," he added. In addition to the four who reached the summit, a further six climbers in the party will attempt to scale the peak in the coming days, he said. [Ibid]
Watanabe's bid had been driven by a rivalry with another Japanese climber, Eiko Funahashi, who was similarly aiming to set the record for being the oldest woman to reach the summit. Funahashi, 72, was last reported to be awaiting a break in the weather before attempting the southeast ridge route, which is considered the easiest route to the top. Funahashi had failed in two previous efforts to reach the peak, in 2006 and 2010.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Nepal Tourism Board (ntb.gov.np), Nepal Government National Portal (nepal.gov.np), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022