Acclimation in a Changing World
Amidst the thin air and harsh conditions that one would find in the Himalayas, lives a hard working group of people called the Sherha (or Sherpa). Many view the Sherpa as the workhorses behind reaching the world's highest summits. While they are among the most trusted guides in the Himalayas, the Sherpa culture dates back hundreds of years to a time of subsistence agriculture and intra-regional trade. Slowly, their society is becoming more and more integrated with western ideas and culture, as most isolated peoples have experienced over time. They have transformed into a society thriving on tourism, rather than trade and agriculture. Such a transformation is necessary for any culture to survive. The ancestors of the Sherha most likely migrated from the Kham, in eastern Tibet over 500 years ago, in search of pastures more suited for their hunting and agricultural needs. The Sherha were a typical hunter/gatherer society, specializing in the herding of yaks, and the growing of rice, corn, and potatoes (beginning in the 1850's) (History of the Sherpas: A Chronological Chart). Their existence depended upon trade between the clans, and other ethnic groups, however. While there was much equality between women and men, there w
Politics in this culture are based on their religious belief, which is based upon Nyingmapa Buddhism, with Animist and Shamanistic beliefs interspersed (http://sintl. Both women and men hold the clan's name as a surname. This is a prime example of how people change in response to changing environments. No individual holds land, for it is viewed as a sort of commune shared by the clan. With such isolation that the Himalayas provide, economic opportunities offer little more than a subsistence way of life, with a limited trade. For a culture such as the Sherpa, it is vital to be able to change in response to various stimuli. Recently, as the Sherpas have become more and more integrated into East Asian societies, many of the Sherpas are finding their partners outside of their own society, and marrying into non-Sherpa families. The centers of Sherpa politics are located in both Naboche (north) and Zhung Gompa(south), pastures nestled in passes in the Himalayas that served as a market place for both goods and ideas. However, as time passed, and the Sherpa remained isolated from outside influence, their spoken language progressed into what is now simply referred to as the Sherpa language, evolving independently from Tibetan (http://sintl. While the Sherpa have become acclimated to their ever-changing environment, they remain the happy, simple people that date back hundreds of years. This ruling party, collaborating with other clans, makes decisions for the clans' well being. These locations offered a vehicle for outside ways of thought, as well as a place to provide for each clan through trade.
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