porters of everest: a dark reality the world should know
- Manisha Thapa
- Jan 28, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Jan 29, 2024
on the second day of my everest base camp trek and an ascend from phakding to namche bazar (3450m), at jorsalle where i had stopped for lunch, i had had a heartwarming hour-long conversation with a young trekking guide after a few hours of hiking alone in silence. ashok, a guy 2-3 years younger than me, introduced me to a concealed reality (in my eyes at least) of everest region upon the comfort that blossomed in the course of our conversation. during this, i once inquired him about his favorite trek in nepal, to which his answer was the annapurna trek. i nodded my head indicating an agreement presenting the reason for a food & accommodation package system availed for trekkers in the ACAP (annapurna conservation area project) region and mentioning that i could not find the same during my one-night stay in phakding. i also did not hesitate to instantly confess that i had expected sagarmatha national park/the everest trekking to be better regulated along with expressing to him that i believed the prices needed to be considered for nepalese to boost domestic tourism in the region. i had seen literally no nepali trekker except for myself until the second day (i was shocked initially, but after a few days i got acquainted with both - seeing no fellow nepali trekker and being mistaken for an indian woman). within my few days there, i also could better grasp the rampant commercialisation and, in some ways, unchecked business happening in khumbu. ashok left me with astonishment and a pile of curiosity when he expressed he did not prefer coming back to everest because, as per him, the trekking culture there was crooked. honestly, it did not feel nice to hear such a thing about khumbu.
while i write this, i, of course, am not badmouth-ing about this pristine slice of my country (or the communities there) that not only brings us millions of rupees each year but also takes nepal to lands of the world i have not even heard names of. with brutal honesty, i lay down one area (there are quite some equally concerning) that we as a whole must very urgently address.
this is a sight so common in everest that you will start normalising in just a few days. i extracted these pictures from the internet as i lost all my everest contents after the trek. full credit of the pictures to the respective photographers.
ashok was in a team of three that included his italian client - a kind man in his 60s who struggled with english, his porter - a silent young man who looked about 3-4 years older than me, and ashok himself. under the warm sun in the teahouse, ashok told me that he belonged to the rai community of solukhumbu itself (the district where everest lies) but hailed from a different rural municipality. due to the trekkers traffic in the tea house as well, having our ordered lunches on our tables took over 30 minutes of patience. in the meantime, i got to exchange conversations both with ashok and his truly nature-loving italian client at a shared table. as soon as our lunches arrived, i could see ashok’s porter who was in a chair next to him listening to us, informing ashok about leaving for lunch. nothing, of course, was strange.
just when i got started with my lunch, ashok, who clearly wanted me to learn the realities, asked if i was aware why his porter left. his question felt abnormal, i simply answered the obvious - to eat perhaps in the kitchen. the smile he then cast was as unpleasant as the learning that came to me afterward. his explanation informed me of two things - first, the porter (i do not know name of) was with us till the arrival of our lunches because he “morally” was not supposed to eat before the rest of the team, and second, he would not have his lunch at the same tea house because that was supposedly not what “khumbu culture” allowed him to do.
i was startled. by the time ashok further explained that before some years porters were not even allowed inside teahouses (any), a part of me that had always dreamed of trekking in khumbu had half-broken. i made ashok multiple follow-up questions ranging from the actions taken by the local government/the national park/the tourism board to the existence of anything like a porters’ union. his answers contained nothing to be hopeful about. “when we share the table we don’t let the other person pay the bill”, ashok’s client who felt guardian-like upon conversation, convinced me to be okay with him paying for my food, and reluctantly i agreed.
i never saw them again on the remaining days. they were climbing to namche only. but if you have happened to see my hillary bridge pictures they were shot by ashok who i had stumbled upon for the second time that day. such a respectful, sensible, and thoughtful man i had encountered.
the sight of porters with almost twice their body weights on their backs was common each hiking day and my happiness in the trails would be easily seized with a thought of them. yet, they were always the earliest to start the day and the fastest in the trails. anyone who has been in khumbu clearly knows, the porters are underequipped, but not all might know they also are underpaid and underfed. my toughest day, on the cho-la pass crossing day where crampons were essential, no porter was using them. what a risk could that pose on a bad day, aggravated by the kind of shoes they wear already inappropriate for the rugged high altitude terrains.
on my rest day in the heaven-like gokyo, i met another peculiarly interesting trekking guide in fitzroy’s (the hotel i stayed in) dining hall. he was unlike the rest of the guides i had encountered so far. this person was the only one who mirrored my mental troubles and shared an equal (so much more actually) enthusiasm for the porters. but the conversation with him did not start with porters but from the expression of love for the mountains and the pain of their degradation. i was utterly impressed to hear (and see in the following days) that he not only picked up litter and packed them out to kathmandu for recycling but also made his clients do the same. his trekking company was called ‘himalayan green trips’ itself and all his treks were eco-treks. when the direction of the conversation diverged to porters, we lost track of time. he empathised with the porters so much more than i did because he supposedly himself had started as a porter many years ago. that evening was a brim of learnings for me.
at one point when he shared some pictures of porters with bruises and wounds on their legs, i badly teared down. not everyone turns blind eyes to this issue – i understood this when Raj shared that he was working on a documentary to present the voices of porters which he already had finished filming. the advocacy was for a porters’ union. i felt lighter. at some points during the trek, i have wondered if i should have chosen an easier (in terms of altitude) trek. when i reflected my journey in gokyo, i thanked god that i chose everest (with gokyo) and did it all by myself. many of these conversations would have never happened if i had a company.
i list down my learnings about porters here for you. i do not know if this feels equally concerning to you, but i have not been the same after the trek. the most laborious and hardworking i have seen in everest region are porters, and these are the people with the most tragic untold (unheard rather) stories. i have returned with a sense of responsibility towards the mountains. mountains do not only mean the tall, frightening but beautiful terrains but also those who give them life. porters make the million-dollar industry possible in everest, i have begun to hate it when people say ‘porters are the unsung heroes of everest’. if you think they are unsung, sing about them.
anyway, here is the list.
porters are generally non-sherpas and they come from uneducated communities of the lowlands from rai, tamang ethnicities. they have historically been discriminated and exploited.
looking down at the dusty trails most of the day, on average, they earn $12 (Rs 1200 –Rs 1300) per day. often, the more they carry the higher their earnings, thus, it is common to see porters piled high with luggage.
unlike for guides and other trekking crew, lodges do not give free food (and accommodation) for porters. upon this expense, their daily saving reduces to about $4 (Rs 400 – Rs 500).
due to this merciless income, porters have to rely on tips. until the final day of a trek, porters are not tipped. therefore, they have no idea whether their labor has been financially worthwhile. some trekkers sometimes do not tip at all.
in other instances, porters are dismissed from the trek the day before reaching the destination by the guides/other leaders of the trek. this prohibits any tips that they might receive and maximises the money for the guides/leaders.
to keep costs down, many porters regularly forgo meals. most porters begin carrying back-breaking loads each morning without any breakfast.
although porters may be able to sleep in lodges depending on the availability of space, upon unavailability they sleep even in caves. (before some years, lodges did not totally allow porters).
porters are segregated from the rest of the trekking group and have always slept, eaten, and walked separately. they don’t really speak to their clients at all and clients don’t generally speak to their porters.
there is generally no insurance scheme for porters. if they fall ill or meet an accident in the trails, the team leader(s) are bound to replace the porter and in most cases not look after their rescue/treatment. only a handful of reputed trekking companies look after their porters.
there is a standard weight allowance for porters but are totally neither enforced nor monitored by any authority.
portering has been a solitary rather than collective assignment, the porters have not yet formally organised with a collective voice because of the little to no bargaining power. this means that there is no porter union.
i am aware, my knowledge has only scratched the surface of the plight the porters live and work with. in the past two months after everest, i have continuously researched, read articles, watched videos about our porters only to be additionally disappointed with how insufficient and scant they are, plus they don’t ironically call for any action. i am also equally sad about the advocacy some NGOs dedicated to porters are not doing (perhaps they have their own limitations, as someone working in NGOs myself, i can give the benefit of doubt). more than nepalese, i have seen foreigners talk about the issue. while we boast so much about everest, it is our moral responsibility to be educated about the dark sides too. i am sorry, our everest is not wholly beautiful. and i am unable to speak of everest without a tingling pain that will accompany unless we address this inhumane culture. hiding these issues is not the solution - i say this, especially to the natives/communities of khumbu, the local government, the national park, and the tourism board. may we all involve in ethical and respectful trekking – as trek organisers, as travelers, and as the communities that host trekking experiences.
i am grateful for each conversation with the people with golden hearts who pushed the horizon of my learnings.
leaving you with:
an infuriating incident about the forced closure (by the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality) of the high altitude clinics set by the International Porters Protection Group (IPPG) in the everest region that used to provide free care for porters.
a YouTube content on porters.
an Al Jazeer’s album of porters.
picture of a porter from the al jazeera's collection.
Worth reading!!