The Stories of Sherpa Camp

The trek to safety and hopes of returning home

She had to walk over dead bodies.

A young twenty-something, Lazen Sherpa, recalled what it was like to walk down the mountain from her village after the devastating earthquakes and landslides in Nepal almost a year ago.

She’s from the Phulping village, high up in the mountains, close to China’s Tibet Autonomous Region border.

People were dying on the way down because residual debris was falling, landing just perfectly enough to cause their deaths. That’s not the end of it; they had to leave them all behind. They couldn’t carry their friends, family members, and neighbors down because they already were carrying other loved ones and their own valuables they were able to recover.

Stoic, brave, and yet gentle, Lazen was retelling her journey to safety on a sunny fall day at Bukam Pirit Sherpa Camp — the full Nepali name for the Sherpa refugee camp in Kathamandu.

With her right hand lightly bouncing in the air to demonstrate the rocky climb down the mountain, the soft-spoken young adult said steadfast with strong resilience, “we had to walk over dead bodies.”

It was a long trek down the day they decided to leave, she said. The climb up and down to their village of Phulping has at least two main routes, one steeper than the other, and both wind along cliffs. It’s a grueling hike with spectacular jaw-dropping views and crystal clear skies. All that came crashing down with violent and tragic damage still evident today.

Sections of beautiful mountains were carved by the earthquake and landslides. Parts of remote villages just crumbled.

Walkers measure the journey by the amount of time it takes to reach an identifying road at the bottom of the mountain. But that was severely damaged and ridden with landslide rubble. A normal five-hour walk down took them an entire day to complete. Their travel to civilization was longer.

When they finally reached Kathmandu, they arrived at a camp area and only saw a couple tents amidst this large piece of land. There were no directions, no help, and no guidance.

“There were a few tents here,” she pointed to where they once were. “We crowded into them.”

This earthquake refugee camp off the Main Road in Kathamndu is a true do-it-yourself settlement.

For the first few weeks, they all huddled under the few tents that were available. Since there was no government help to be found, they scrapped together what materials they could find or purchase to build their new community. A local monastery came to aid and helped with the building of temporary homes for the new refugee settlement. USAID and UNICEF logos are also somehow found on materials in the camp.

“People from Phulping heard some relocated to Kathmandu,” she shared.“They said, ‘if many are there, we should go.’” And in came more from the mountain region.

Then, temporary became lengthy. It is more than eight months now. Sherpa Camp has become something like a tent city with several communities residing together. There are lanes between rows of tent homes and shallow ground irrigation canals in case of rainfall.

To the relief to many, no rent has yet to be requested by the landlord. They do come by every once in a while to check in on the community and the space. It’s an awkward predicament seeing the landlord, as a refugee having left their home with no job to be found.

A man residing in the Sherpa Camp said there was nothing for them to do while in Kathmandu. They, the able-willed, the young, the educated, were all milling about in their tent community.

“We’re just sitting here,” Krishna Pravati said.

He showed his modest tent serving as his temporary home that contains all the things a family might need: blankets, a small table, cups, places for meals, their belongings, and a roof.

He insists it’s temporary as he was about to make the trek up to the region of Phulping Katti.

About ten people discussed returning late last fall in order to see what kind of damage their homes and land suffered. The group hopes to discuss rebuilding after their assessment, in the hopes of contacting their families in the Sherpa Camp to make their final return home.

“Need some job now, we’re just sitting here,” he said under a communal tent he built for the Sherpa Camp community. “Not possible, school, jobs. Not possible.”

School is too expensive for their children and Nepal has terrible levels of employment that even moving to the capital city doesn’t help. The world moves on and they’re “just sitting around.”

For these refugees, the only thought is home.