Effects of tourism felt in Himalayas

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34047, 10 January 1976, Page 6

Effects of tourism felt in Himalayas

The influx of tourists in the Mount Everest region of the Himalayas in recent yean has changed the “feeling” of the place, says Mrs Ann Wilson, of Christchurch.

She found an indefinable difference among Sherpas themselves.

"Many visitors have abused the hospitably of local people, who have now become somewhat nonchalent towards strangers,” she said, "though we found them just as warm and kindly as ever when we returned last month.” Inevitably. increasing numbers of climbers as well as well-to-do tourists and ’rekkers have affected the Sherpas’ attitude to foreign"Tounsts spend money, but thev also make a place feel different from what it was, anywhere.” she said. INCONSIDERATE Some of them had been very inconsiderate in the way they burned scarce wood indiscriminately on big. open fires. Summer rrekkers, she was told, had left trails of rubbish along the main route from Katmandu to the Mount Everest base camp

"Personalty. I did not see much litter on the tracks

.(apart from a few lolly papers) and we were there in the off-season. And I understand the debris had ;been cleaned up by then.” The early-winter trekkers jshe met were "nice young •people” prepared to rough it and carry their own gear. I They were there to absorb the scenic grandure and get i to know the local people. Obviously, they were different types from summertime holidaymakers. It was 10 years since Ann Wilson and her husband, Dr Jim Wilson, a lecturer in religious studies at the University of Canterbury had visited the “Sherpa country.” | “It was wonderful to be back,” Ann said, “but it is impossible to recapture the feeling of magic you experience the first time you go into the Himalayas. And it was heart-warming to meet old Sherpa friends again, though we were disappointed to find so many of them were away on treks.” NEW HOSPITAL Jim Wilson was sent to) iPaphlu, about 10,000 ft up in the Himalayas, by the HiImalayan Trust to help Sir Edmund complete a new | hospital there for Sherpas

and Nepalese. Ann Wilson went along for a holiday and took the opportunity to do some pastel drawings of mountain views as well as the Sherpa and Nepalese homes which fascinate her for their architecture. She has already sold about half of the 20 drawings she did in the Himalayas and at Katmandu, mainly to New Zealanders who have been there.

While at Paphlu the Wilsons joined a party of young I New Zealanders, who were 'working on the hospital, for a week’s trek led by Sir Edmund Hillary. One night they camped on the top of a 13,000 ft peak, where it was so cold they had to use double sleeping bags and go to bed with all their clothes on. But any discomforts were worth the magnificent vista of the Himalayas they gazed on in the early morning light and in the golden glow of the setting sun. HOLY CITY On their way to Nepal, Jim I and Ann Wilson revisited Var- ' anasi (formerly Benares), India’s Holy City. Both had studied at the Varanasi Hindu University for two years in the 19605, Dr Wilson for a Ph.D. in Indian philosophy

and Mrs Wilson for a Diploma in Fine Arts.

i “It was really exciting to !go back to this hot, crowded city on the banks of the Ganges River,” she said. “It is a city of temples and pilgrimages, where the noise of rickshaw bells and traffic, the masses of people and cattle milling around are indescribable.” They wandered through narrow alleys, browsed through shops full of gold embroidered silk saris, walked round their old campus and ate in Indian restaurants, while half-forgotten memories flooded back in this city that does not change. Katmandu was also much the same as they remembered it a decade ago, except that it was much busier. “Far more cars and foreigners everywhere, new eating houses and hotels.” And it came as a bit of a shock to see traffic lights in the heart of the city. The Wilsons hired bicycles at 30c a day to ride round the city and countryside to do their sight-seeing.

“Katmandu is still a fascinating place, in spite of the growing tourist industry and all that goes with it,” Ann Wilson said.