Team Reports: Images of the Khumbu

The Everest 2000 Expedition team is trekking through the Khumbu Region of Nepal. This is what they have discovered about the villages they've seen and the people they've met.

Bathrooms in the Khumbu
The standard bathroom in the Khumbu Region is the outhouse. The outhouse is usually a small brick building with a hole in the ground. Dirt and leaves are mixed with the human debris for composting.

When the outhouse is full and the composting process is complete, the compost is removed and used to fertilize potato fields.

Without this form of composting, the soil in the Khumbu region would not be rich enough to grow potatoes.

Namche Bazaar Market


On Saturdays, the small village of Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) turns into the shopping centre of the Khumbu Region.

Video Some of the Everest 2000 team members visit the market at Namche Bazaar.

People from Khumbu villages up to ten days away and as far as Tibet come to sell a variety of goods at this outside market.

Some items available are corn, rice, eggs, vegetables, meat, jewellery, film, and souveniers, climbing gear, goats, cheese, chocolate bars, carpets and general clothing. The market is also an important social gathering opportunity for the people that live hours away from each other.

Schools in the Khumbu
All students in this region of Nepal have access to school. School runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays.

Children will travel up to four hours to attend school and stay at the homes of relatives, friends or in the nearby lodges. They return home on Friday afternoon and go back again Sunday morning in time for class.

The Everest 2000 team visited two schools, the Shree Himalayan Primary School in Namche Bazaar, and Khumjung Secondary School in Khumjung.

The Shree Himalayan Primary School was a single building with three classrooms. The classes covered grades 1 through 5 with the students ranging in age from five to 15. There were about 50 students altogether.

Sir Edmund Hillary built the original school in the Khumbu region in Khumjung. Since then several buildings have been added to represent the new Khumjung Secondary School. Approximately 300 students are registered in grades one to ten. The students range in age from six to 18 years.

This school offers the only high school in the region. There are several buildings which allow the different grades to be separated. Each building has one or two rooms. The subjects offered are Math, English, Nepali, Social History, Environment, Health, and Physical Education. The students usually have one hour of homework each night. After grade ten some students will continue their studies in Kathmandu.

The schools in both villages were similar. The buildings are stone, have no heating, no electrical lighting and no bathrooms. The only source of lighting is a small skylight in the roof. The students sit on a long bench and their desk is a taller plank bench. Some rooms have a portable chalkboard and some rooms used painted planks attached to the wall.

The students have textbooks to assist their studies and enjoy drawing pictures as most rooms had them hanging from string along the ceiling.

The schoolyards are large dirt fields with no playground equipment. Most games involve drawing in the dirt, using rocks or sticks as writing instruments. We also saw a form of marble games. When asked, the students said they like to play volleyball and track and field events.

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