Everest Guardian

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Instructor: Manus Leung     November 2019 - December 2019

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In Nepal and Himalayan regions, many Sherpas are living as guides on Mt. Everest. This is a very dangerous job, which might take their lives at any time. By 2019, there had been 118 Sherpas that died on Mt. Everest for this job. Many corpses are still missing, and for those corpses having been found, it's hard to carry them down Mt. Everest. Therefore, masses of dead bodies lie on the snowy mountain. Most Sherpas are Buddhists, and, for them, death is an accepted consequence of climbing Mt. Everest, but they believe that until the soul has been released through cremation or other burial rites near the body, they couldn't search for a path toward the next life. However, climbers from other regions only care about their reputation, being a man standing on the top of the world, overlooking Sherpa's deeds for climbing. 

Therefore, I decide to design a memorial for those Sherpas that died on Everest and create a space for equal communication between foreign climbers and Sherpa guides. To some extent, I hope my design could help Sherpas that died on Mt. Everest find peace and appeal to the public to show more respect to Sherpas and Mt. Everest.