- The story about Kancha Sherpa from Namche in Nepal. He was one of 103 Sherpas that brought Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to the top of Mt. Everest in 1953, as the first to reach the top. This achievement would have been impossible without the strength, courage and knowledge of the Sherpas, who have a strong connection to the mountains of the Himalayas. At the age of 80, Kancha is the Last of the First from the 1953 expedition to Mt. Everest. Kancha is looking into the future, with a heartfelt hope that his tradition, will reach far into the 21st century and beyond. He is concerned to see modern traditions melting away old traditions, like the snow on the top of Mt. Everest—Anonymous
- This is the story about Kancha Sherpa from Namche in Nepal. He was one of 103 Sherpa's that brought Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to the top of Mt. Everest in 1953, as the first to reach the top. This achievement would have been impossible without the strength, courage and knowledge of the Sherpa's, who have a strong connection to the mountains of the Himalayas. At the age of 80, Kancha is the Last of the First from the 1953 expedition to Mt. Everest. Kancha is looking into the future, with a heartfelt hope that his tradition, will reach far into the 21st century and beyond. He is concerned to see modern traditions melting away old traditions, like the snow on the top of Mt. Everest.
When he was 19 years old, Kancha ran away from home, because he wanted to work as a mountaineer in Darjeeling. In 1953 he was handpicked as one of the Sherpa's on Sir Edmund Hillary's expedition crew list of Sherpa's that brought safety, knowledge and manpower to the western mountaineers. This opportunity became the beginning of a life on the edge as a caretaker of western adventurous men and women, whose goal it was to conquer the roof of the world. The Sherpa's have skills beyond comprehension for most western minds and they have gotten little attention for their courage and responsibility. Without them nobody would have reached the top of the world.
Kancha's grandchild Tschering (24 years old) is the one that can bring the knowledge and skills of Kancha into the future, but till this day Tschering has been split between western traditions and Sherpa traditions. Kancha and Tschering will get the opportunity to exchange values, ideas and considerations and through these the audience will learn about the choices Tschering has to make to bring Kancha's dream into life.
One can easily imagine the cultural distance from Kancha's traditional style of living as a Sherpa conducting spiritual practices and doing mountaineering, to Tscherings modern lifestyle in Kathmandu. What are the pitfalls of the traditional Sherpa life as a mountaineer and porter on the expeditions and how has Kancha survived these pitfalls and undergone changes in his life, to make him the religious man he is today? How much of Kancha's youth does Tschering know about? Can he identify with the lifestyle of Kancha and is it necessary to carry on Sherpa culture?
The journey in the Documentary takes us to Kathmandu up in the mountains and around Namche Bazaar where Kancha lives with his wife. Here he starts every day with a spiritual ritual, walking around the local gompa (Buddhist temple) and doing blessings and protecting rituals around the whole village - as he has become a man of trust in religious practice. 20 years ago he thought less about religion and was not as pious and perfect as now. The work in mountaineering and life has brought this dimension into his life, and now he is eager to pass it on to Tschering. Maybe Tschering looks a lot more like his grandfather than you would first think. How and why has life made Kancha religiously pious and does he understand the difficulty of Tschering's choice?
The meta layer of this documentary will bring insight to the viewer to reflect on spirituality and the path of modern life in western cultures where spirituality is something most people relate to on weekend workshops led by various new age spirituals.
It thrives to be a beautiful documentation of the significance of the interrelatedness between all beings, in order to live life in the highest of dimensions, both spiritually as well as practically.
Featuring Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund Hillary, by who we are given insights about the Sherpa people and the Himalayan environment.
Kancha Sherpa came to life as an original idea by Bruno Jørgensen. Bruno has been friends with Kancha for more than 15 years and is now part of the reality, that Kancha's story will be told. This is a close-up story about the life and survival in the harshest of conditions, a life of spirituality and loving respect for the environment, nature, animals and people, has prevented Kancha from taking the same route into death, as many of his fellow mountaineers and porters. The story is told from a personal perspective with the goal to bring inspiration and reflection to us all.
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By what name was Kancha Sherpa: Last of the First from the 1953 Conquest of Mt Everest officially released in Canada in English?
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