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Touching My Father's Soul: A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest

2003; Elsevier BV; Volume: 14; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1580/1080-6032(2003)014[0071

1545-1534

Luanne Freer,

Philippine History and Culture

The foreword for this book is written by the Dalai Lama, foretelling that the content is much more than an “I climbed Everest” mountaineering book. The author, Jamling Tenzing Norgay, is the son of sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who with Edmund Hillary successfully stood first on the highest mountain on earth. In Touching My Father's Soul, the author collaborates with Broughton Coburn to tell a fascinating and spiritual story of his own successful summit. This is a story of a legacy and his drive to follow in his father's footsteps. The story is compelling enough on its own, but a special added dimension is its historical perspective—his parallel telling of his father's historic first ascent of Everest in 1953. Adding flavor and a personal touch to these 2 fascinating stories is Jamling's account of his own struggle with the conflict of his life as a student in the United States with the culture and spiritual life of his family in the Himalaya. Mr Norgay frankly discusses his own youthful struggle with his celebrity (and often absent) father and his skepticism of Buddhism and sherpa life. But as he prepares to journey in his father's footsteps, he finds spiritual connection with his past, which ultimately provides him with the strength to climb amidst death and disaster in the deadliest season of climbing in Everest history. Who should read Touching My Father's Soul? After all, it is only one of many accounts that chronicle the Everest disaster of 1996. Jon Krakauer, author of the most commercially successful of the group, Into Thin Air, says it well in the introduction to Norgay's book: “…wondering why anybody other than the most obsessive Everest fanatic should bother reading yet another account of that infamous season on the world's highest mountain … Jamling's book should be read—it is in fact among the best of the bunch. There is much to marvel at in these pages. It taught me a great deal.” I wholeheartedly agree with Mr Krakauer.