Sherpa Names Ethnicity Not Occupation

Sherpa is not an occupation or job title but the name of a Tibetan ethnic group native to the mountainous regions of Nepal, India, and Tibet. Many Sherpas work as climbing guides throughout the Himalayas, and their expertise made them vital to major expeditions, including Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay's first documented Everest ascent with New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary in 1953. Their reputation became so closely tied to mountaineering that outsiders began using "Sherpa" for almost any Himalayan guide, even when that person was not ethnically Sherpa.

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