Nepal is a primarily Hindu country bordering the Autonomous Region of Tibet of the People’s Republic of China in the North and India in the east, south and west respectively. Its diverse area covers 147,181 square kilometers. Its capitol Katmandu has a population of 18,491,097. Nepali is the national language; educated people understand and speak English well.

There are over 70 ethnic groups with their own native language. Nepali people are mainly divided into two distinct groups, the Indo-Aryans and the Mongoloids. Nepal is the only Hindu Kingdom in the world. Hindu temples and Buddhist shrines are scattered all over he kingdom. Nepal is the birthplace of Lord Buddha, the Light of Asia. There is a complex blending of Hinduism and Buddhism in Nepal.

Nepal is geographically spectacular. Of the 14 peaks above 8000 meters in the world eight are located in Nepal. It is the land of Sagarmentha (Mount Everest, 88848 meters), the highest peak in the world, as well as 1310 other mountain peaks,

Amidst those very mountain peaks, living lives of seemingly inscrutable harmony, dwell a people known as Sherpa, The Sherpa are an ethnically Tibetan group. They live in the mountains (between about 8500 and 14,000 feet) of northeast Nepal. Sherpa are thought to have migrated from Kham, in northeast Tibet, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. They now occupy three connected regions of the area: Khumbu, the highest, coldest, and northernmost; Solu, the lower (relatively) warmer, and southernmost; and Pharak, a valley running between Khumbu and Solu. Theirs is a system of patrilineal clans, which in modern times primarily regulates marriage. Their traditional economy combines agriculture, herding and trade.

The Sherpa of Khumbu are a particularly celebrated group due primarily to the geographic facts of their land, specifically, Khumbu is located in the high valleys at the foot of Mount Everest. Khumbu is bordered on the north by Tibet and on the west, east and south by Nepalese regions known as Rowling, Pharak and the Arun river region. To the north of Khumbu the main crest forms a border with Tibet. One path, Nangpa-La leads north. Before China’s occupation of Tibet, this pass was heavily used in trade.

The Sherpa gained particular fame with the first publicized assent of Mt Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1957. Tenzig, a Sherpa, accompanied Hillary on his famous expedition. Hilary was deeply impressed by the Sherpa people and asked Tenzig what he (Hillary) might do for them. (See Sherpas. James Fisher) Tenzig responded that education was the one thing the Sherpa needed. Hillary set out to raise funds for building schools, hospitals and many other projects. The word Sherpa has since become synonymous with knowledgeable guide.

The Sherpa have traditionally survived as both yak herders and traders. They were able to walk across the passes leading to Tibet carrying goods from Nepal and make the return journey carrying much needed salt to the lowlands in Nepal. Their yak heading economy is quite extensive, as the animals need to be moved between fields from season to season.

Housing practices reveal much about how people live, including aspects of both physical and cultural geography. Physical geography can limit the materials out of which houses are built, the transportation of non-indigenous materials, the size of the structure and how much space is allotted both inside and out to various activities. Studying the relative allotment of space for different functions can give the student a veritable map of cultural importance assigned to these respective functions.

Sherpa housing shares features with many other occurrences of vernacular architecture. The materials out of which the houses have traditionally been constructed include items lifted straight out of the local landscape. The timber used as beams comes form the nearby Mt. Everest National Forest. The dung used as mud comes from the yaks tended in the area. The rocks forming the walls are quarried locally. The opportunities for increased wealth brought by tourism allowing many residents beyond the level of subsistence have now also begun to change the types of construction and the aesthetics of building.

The key questions addressed in this unit will focus on how the land effects how people solve the problems of construction of homes and sustenance. Lesson one tries to evoke the students’ prior knowledge of mountains to depict the physical geography of the high mountains of Nepal as setting for the story. Lesson two students create the characters in the story. The teacher can direct questioning and assignment criteria so those students will need to know about the people of the mountains. Lesson three, Family and Friends focuses on the division to the inside space into arenas designed to eating, sleeping and worship. Lesson three focuses on the exterior construction of the houses. Lesson four focuses on the location and setting of the house on the land and the division of the outside property into grazing or farming land.