Ang Tharkay (1907 – 28 July 1981) was a Nepalese mountain climber and explorer was born in 1907 in Kunde, just north of Namche Bazaar in the Solukhumbu district of Nepal, near Mount Everest.
He acted as sherpa and later sirdar for many Himalayan expeditions. He was “beyond question the outstanding sherpa of his era” and he introduced Tenzing Norgay to the world of mountaineering.
The first time Ang Tharkay was chosen for an expedition was in 1931 by a German party for Kangchenjunga. He was then included in the team for British attempt on Everest in 1933 where he became honoured as one of the “Tigers” – one who carried to over 27,000 feet (8,200 m).
He was on the 1935 British Everest expedition and it was because of Ang Tharkay that a friend of his, Tenzing Norgay, got his first engagement as a sherpa.
The Royal Geographical Society said of Ang Tharkay, “He was exceptional as both climber and sirdar, and his character won high praise from all who knew him”.
Cooke considered him “one of the bravest, most intelligent, and adventurous of all the young Sherpas”.
Shipton wrote, “We soon learned to value his rare qualities, qualities which made him outstandingly the best of all the Sherpas I have known.
He had a shrewd judgement both of men and of situations, and was absolutely steady in any crisis. He was a most lovable person, modest and unselfish and completely sincere, with an infectious gaiety of spirit. He has been with me on all my subsequent journeys to the Himalayas, and to him I owe a large measure of their success and much of my enjoyment”.
