FORM AND SUBSTANCE
Photo © Geraldine Forde-Buckley
I recently watched the documentary, Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa. She is the first Sherpa woman to climb Mount Everest, and at 10 climbs she holds the record for the most Everest summits by a woman. She knows Mount Everest by her local Tibetan name, Chomolungma, meaning Goddess Mother of the World. The Nepalese name is Sagarmatha, Goddess of the Sky. It seemed to me Lhakpa Sherpa understood each time she climbed, she climbed at her mountain mother’s benevolence.
Sir Edmund Hillary made international headlines in 1953 when he became the first man, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, to climb Mount Everest. He famously said, “we knocked the bastard off”, an expression no doubt reflective of the times in which he accomplished this feat. Sir Edmund Hillary went on to say that “human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain”, and subsequently he devoted much of his life to helping the people of Nepal through The Himalayan Trust, building schools, hospitals, bridges, an airstrip and much more.
Lhakpa Sherpa was born 20 years after Sir Edmund Hillary’s achievement but as a female was unable to attend school or be a Sherpa. She cut her hair short and dressed as a boy to enable her to become a Sherpa. She still does not read or write, but nonetheless speaks 7 languages.
I’m not a climber and was more than a little taken aback at the documentary images of a queue of climbers patiently waiting their turn to summit. The Goddess Mother of the World extending a greater measure of patience and benevolence than might be perceived.
I was prompted to write this poem when looking at our beautiful local female mountain, Kaitake. And those images of queues on Everest came piling in over the top.
FORM AND SUBSTANCE
She veils her face
Allowing mist to slowly drift down her neck
A communion of heaven and earth that is sacred to the heights
Though that can be trampled over if you simply wish to conquer
Be careful where you tread
Though in form she is a mountain
In substance
She is quiescent power