Educational Success Stories: Ang Tshering Sherpa
This Tuesday for our Educational Success story is the amazing story of Ang Tshering Sherpa. đź‘Ź
Ang Tsering Lama’s family have been important in Phaplu for many generations. The ancestral home is a very big house near the more recent airstrip. In 1928, they played an important role in the founding of the culturally significant Chiwong Monastery, three hours walk from Phaplu. I996 was the first year of the decade-long Maoist civil war in Nepal which displaced many rural landowners including the Lama family who emigrated to the United States.
Ang Tshering was approached by a non-profit called Move 92 who, with the support of The Himalayan Trust, has enabled Tshering to develop the Phaphlu Mountain Bike Club with a series of financial grants. The pump track was born and sees scores of enthusiastic small children each day after school riding the jumps of the track.ountain biker who taught him new skills. In Phaplu, they discovered a wealth of trails suitable for mountain biking. Ang Tshering, with his father and grandma, live in a uniquely atmospheric house built in 1971 for the family and also Count Guido Monzini who had led an early Italian expedition on Everest. Sir Ed regularly stayed there when he was in Phaplu and is said to have changed the name from Hostellerie des Sherpas to The Happy House which provides luxury accommodation for well-off foreigners.
The future is to develop Phaplu as a mountain biking destination for both Nepali and foreign riders. A local Karmi rider, Rachin Birali, is developing skills at the high end of the technical range. Seven new trails have been developed in the forest above Phaplu Hospital leading up to Ratnangi (translated as The Place of Blood) which has extensive views of the Khumbu peaks. For skilled riders, the descent from Pike on the other side of the Solu valley is a challenge. Covid is now receding in Nepal and foreigners returning, some of them it is hoped to The Phaplu Mountain Bike Club.
The future is to develop Phaplu as a mountain biking destination for both Nepali and foreign riders. A local Karmi rider, Rachin Birali, is developing skills at the high end of the technical range. Seven new trails have been developed in the forest above Phaplu Hospital leading up to Ratnangi (translated as The Place of Blood) which has extensive views of the Khumbu peaks. For skilled riders the descent from Pike on the other side of the Solu valley is a challenge. Covid is now receding in Nepal and foreigners returning, some of them it is hoped to The Phaplu Mountain Bike Club.
We are proud of Ang Tshering’s vision and dedication to his ancestral village and we hope to continue to support him and the community of Phaphlu.