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Page 4
“...shared faith that members’ needs will be met through
their commitment to be together.” However, in the case
of post-earthquake Sherpa experiences the definition of
‘community’ kept morphing depending on the time and
situation; subsequently, this sense of community was also
adjusted to reflect this morphing definition. Communities
were at once ‘territorial,’ and ‘relational’ (Gusfield 1975),
and not mutually exclusive. Territories were defined at
different scales—village, region, VDC (Village Development
Committee), district—and there were different sets of
relationships involved in identifying what constituted
‘communities.’ In our discussions, sometimes we talked
about one community, at other times we spoke of many
communities, and often we discussed more than one
kind of community woven together in our conversations
without distinguishing them. The ‘fluid boundaries’
(Fisher 2001) of communities were self-understood by each
member, and our discussions concentrated on supporting
this shifting...”
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Page 5
“...administrative units, the Village
Development Committees (VDCs), within the Solukhumbu
district: Khumjung, Namche, and Chaurikharka.
SOLUKHUMBU DISTRICT
Figure 1. Map of Solukhumbu District Showing VDCs.
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The area overseen by the Khumjung and Namche VDCs
are locally known as Khumbu. The area overseen by
Chaurikharka VDC is locally known as Pharak. The resi-
dents of the Everest region use either Khumbu or Pharak,
the Sherpa names, or the name of their individual VDCs,
depending on the context of their conversation. According
to the government of Nepal’s 2011 census, the combined
area of these three VDCs has a population of 7,161 indi-
viduals, contains 1,999 households, and is a total of
1,478 sq. km.
According to the Nepal Human Development Report 2014
produced by the government of Nepal and the United
Nations Development Program (UNDP), Solukhumbu
has a Human Development Index (HDl) value of 0.502,
which...”
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Page 6
“...which the name for the Khumjung VDC
originates) and Khunde villages immediately after the first
earthquake. He reported that out of 178 houses, 23 were
fully damaged, 50 had damaged walls, 65 had minor damage,
and 40 had cracks in the house (GHF website accessed on
May 9, 2017). After local consultation, and on-foot survey,
I found that in five out of nine Chaurikharka VDC wards
(1,3,5,6, and 9), out of 372 households in these wards, 130
houses were severely damaged (unusable without major
reconstruction), 24 were moderately damaged (unsafe
to live in), and 81 had minor damages (required repairs).
During our visit, I also found that the entire village of
Jorsalle had to relocate to Monzo until their homes were
repaired. In Jorsalle (a village that is locally known as
Thumbuk), the earthquake had severely damaged every
residential house. One man died instantly from a rock that
came rolling from the steep slopes above the village during
the earthquake. Monzo, which sits higher up than Jorsalle...”
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Page 7
“...mentioned in her progress report focused on
the foundation’s earthquake recovery projects that one
of the biggest challenges they faced was transporting
construction materials to the project sites in Khumbu
(SEHF website accessed on May 14, 2017). These materi-
als needed to be flown in to the nearest airport and then
carried to the project site, which significantly increased
costs and the time needed to begin rebuilding. The short
seasonal window for construction also hindered the pace
of reconstruction. Lack of qualified local engineers to build
earthquake-resistant structures further detracted from
these efforts. Yangji Dorna Sherpa emphasized that living
in temporary shelters in the harsh mountain climate was
difficult. Therefore, villagers had no alternative but to
rebuild their homes. They did not wait for governmental
assistance because it was not certain when it would arrive;
and even if it did arrive in time, the government allocated
assistance funds would not have been sufficient...”
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Page 9
“...Mount
Everest have been repaired with lighter and less expensive
materials like the tin walls on the outside, and plywood on
the inside.
Critical Community Responses
The Sagarmatha Sarokar Samaj (SSS) describes itself, on
their Facebook page, as ‘a civil organization representing
the people of Namche, Khumjung, Chaurikharka, Jubing,
and Taksindo VDCs, established to advocate and support
sustainable development, good governance, human rights,
and social inclusion.’ It was formed shortly before the first
earthquake, and presented its letter of demands, advocat-
ing for sustainable development in the Everest region, to
the then Prime Minister Shushil Koirala. The post-earth-
quake reality halted the SSS’s progress on these previously
set goals. The earthquake, however, also opened space on
the Web to be critical of how the community reacted to the
distribution of emergency relief goods. On May 4, 2015, SSS
wrote on their Facebook page:
Ten days passed since the disastrous earthquake.
Observation...”
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Page 12
“... (accessed on
June 3, 2016).
Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation. Second
Anniversary of Nepal Earthquake. (accessed on May 14, 2017).
Thame Sherpa Heritage Fund. Our Thame Valley. (accessed on May
14, 2017).
United Nations Development Program. 2016. Human
Development Index, development-index-hdi> (accessedjuly 12, 2017).
------. 2014. Nepal Human Development Report 2014:
Beyond Geography, Unlocking Human Potential. (accessed on May 14, 2017).
Wyrick, Randy. 2016. Pemba Sherpa Launched Sherpa
Foundation and is Receiving Nepal’s Equivalent of
Knighthood. Vail Daily, October 28, 2016.
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