1. Teachers’ Notes and Captions
Exploring Everest
Teachers’ Notes and Captions
Aims
To explore the ways Everest expeditions have been represented in photographs.
To understand the roles of individuals involved in the expeditions.
To recognise the importance of local knowledge in exploration and fieldwork.

2. The Climbers
This is one of the most iconic images of a climber on Everest. Who is standing on top of the highest peak in the world?
This is Tenzing Norgay on the summit of Mount Everest at am on May 29, Tenzing waves his ice-axe on which are strung the flags of the United Nations, Britain, India and Nepal. The 1953 expedition was the first successful ascent of Mount Everest when Tenzing Norgay together with Edmund Hillary reached the highest peak in the world.
Photo: Tenzing Norgay on the summit of Mount Everest
Edmund Hillary, 1953 © Royal Geographical Society

3. The Climbers
What does this image tell us about the relationship between Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary?
Two days after their successful ascent of the summit, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary drink a cup of tea in celebration at Camp IV.
Tenzing wrote that “All the way up and down we helped and were helped by, each other – and that was the way it should be. But we were not leader and led. We were not leader and led. We were partners.”
Photo: Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hilary drink a celebratory cup of tea at Camp IV in the Western Cwm after their successful ascent of Mount Everest.
George Band, 30 May 1953 © Royal Geographical Society

4. The Interpreters
Explorers needed local information and support so it was in their interests to develop good working partnerships with people who could act as ‘brokers’ between expedition parties and local people. To people such as interpreter, Karma Paul, expeditions offered income and status and the possibility of wider opportunities for employment.
Karma Paul worked for every British expedition to Everest between 1922 and 1938 and became far more knowledgeable about exploration than many European explorers. He was originally born in Tibet, but raised as an orphan in Darjeeling and spoke Tibetan, Nepali, Bengali and various Himalayan dialects.
Photo: Karma Paul
Unknown photographer, 1935 © Royal Geographical Society

5. The Pundits
These men were known as ‘Pundits’ who helped Britain to secretly explore and survey Tibet, when they themselves were denied access to the area. They were recognised by the British for their important geographical contribution, but were seen as ‘followers’ rather than ‘leaders’.
Nain Singh [left] was a teacher by profession and was sent to Tibet to take measurements for the Trigonometrical Survey. His first visit was a 1,200 mile journey from Kathmandu to Lhasa in Tibet from January 1865 to April In January, he reached Lhasa, whose position and altitude he was the first to measure accurately. He received a RGS Gold medal for “his observations (that) have added a larger amount of important knowledge to the map of Asia than those of any other living man.”
Kishen Singh [click for right image] was a cousin of Nain Singh who also worked for the British. His reports were published under the code name ‘A-K’. In an astonishing 2,800 mile journey, he mapped the route North of Lhasa into Xinjiang.
Photo left: Nain Singh, ‘The Pundit’
Geographical Journal, 62 (1923) p.437 © Royal Geographical Society
Photo right: Kishen Singh, ‘A-K’
Geographical Journal, 62 (1923) p.436 © Royal Geographical Society

6. Sarat Chandra Das
This painting shows the pundit, Sarat Chandra Das, travelling incognito on a yak in 1879, crossing the Donkhya Pass in India at 18,000 feet (5,486m).
As the British could not go to Tibet themselves, they recruited, equipped and trained Tibetans to explore and survey the forbidden lands for them. Sarat and others like him carried only basic instruments, and were under the constant threat of detection.
For over 20 years, the pundits undertook amazing journeys and brought back their findings for British map-makers and strategists. The vital information that Chandra Das and the pundit known as "M H" recorded was all that was known about the approaches to Everest until the early years of the twentieth century.
[Click for second image of Tibetan prayer wheel] These are normally used to spread spiritual blessings and well being. Prayer wheels like the one in the photograph were adapted with 100 beads, rather than the normal 108, so the pundits could measure distances by counting their steps. Two thousand of these steps measured a mile. Prayer wheels were also used to conceal maps.
Photo: Sarat Chandra Das
Unknown, 1873 © Royal Geographical Society
Photo: Silver prayer wheel
Sarat Chandra Das, unknown date, © Royal Geographical Society

7. Mapping India
What instruments are these men carrying and what are they used for?
Here, Indian survey porters carry the equipment needed for the massive task of mapping India. This nineteenth century lithograph, shows a tripod, measuring chain and levelling staff which measures 10 feet (3 metres) high.
Local knowledge and skill was often used by the Europeans, especially where it could easily be fitted into existing forms of knowledge, such as a map or survey. The resulting work could be seen as co-produced. The nineteenth-century mapping of India, not only depended heavily on local labour but also drew on pre-colonial mapping traditions.
Photo: Surveying in India
Maclure, Macdonald & Macgregor after W.S. Sherwill. Lithograph, in H.L. Thuillier, A Manual of surveying for India (London, 1855)
© Royal Geographical Society

8. The Expedition members 1
As well as depending on local people for interpretation and guidance, European explorers depended on local labour to work as porters and cooks.
The local Sherpa people took part in many expeditions to climb Mount Everest. Their relationship with the Europeans changed from one of being porters or so-called ‘coolies’ in the early expeditions in the 1920s and 1930s to one of ‘partners’ in the 1950s.
Photo: Everest expedition members, 1922
J.B.L.Noel, 1922 © Royal Geographical Society

9. The Expedition members 2
Photo: ‘Porters enjoying the late afternoon sunshine at Camp II on the East Rongbuk Glacier, while Peter Oliver practices his step-cutting on one of the glacier's spectacular ice pinnacles’ (original caption)
Hugh Ruttledge, 1936 © Royal Geographical Society

10. The Expedition members 3
Photo: Seracs, East Rongbuk Glacier above Camp II
George Finch © Royal Geographical Society

11. Recruiting Sherpas 1
Here, expedition leaders work with Karma Paul to recruit local Sherpa people to act as porters for the expedition.
Photo: Preparing for recruitment of porters at Darjeeling (with Karma Paul)
Hugh Ruttledge, 1936 © Royal Geographical Society

12. Recruiting Sherpas 2
Sherpa families are being paid for their work. They acknowledged payment with their thumbprints – see next slide.
Photo: ‘Taking coolies dependants thumbprints’ (original caption)
J.B.L. Noel, 1922 © Royal Geographical Society

13. Payments to Sherpas
Photo: A receipt book for monthly payments to Sherpas’ dependants for work on the 1922 Everest Expedition
MSS voucher book, 1922 © Royal Geographical Society

14. The Sherpas
This is a page from a 1936 Everest album which includes many Sherpas who took part in the expedition, wearing their newly-issued identity discs. Interpreter Karma Paul is in the third row, fourth from the right, next to expedition leader Hugh Ruttledge. A young Tenzing Norgay is in the fourth row, first on the left.
Photo: Everest Album
J.M.L. Gavin, 1936 © Royal Geographical Society

15. The Photographers
Who do you think are the two people in this photo?
This is a photograph of John Noel who took many photographs and made the first of many documentary films of expeditions to Everest. It was probably taken by a Sherpa and also includes a partially-obscured porter balancing the film camera while the photograph was taken.
Photo: Captain Noel and kinematograph camera with large telephoto lens established on the Chang La (North Col) at 23,000 feet.
Unknown photographer, 1922 © Royal Geographical Society

16. The Equipment
Photo: Two Sherpa photographic porters who carried Kinema camera
J.B.L. Noel, 1922 © Royal Geographical Society

17. Filming on Mount Everest
As well as showing the high-altitude climb, John Noel’s film includes scenes showing the appointment of sixty Sherpas in Darjeeling (eight of them to carry the film cameras), the journey through Kalimpong to Sikkim and into Tibet and an extended sequence of masked ritual dances at Rongbuk monastary at the foot of Everest.
Photo: Climbing Mount Everest
Film Programme, 1922 © Royal Geographical Society