夏尔巴 transliterates 'Sherpa' (Tibetan ཤར་པ་, 'people of the east'). Roughly 150,000 Sherpas live in eastern Nepal, with a smaller population in Tibet. Their genetic adaptations to altitude and centuries of high-mountain life made them indispensable to every Everest expedition since the 1920s — Tenzing Norgay (
丹增·
诺尔盖), who summited with Hillary in 1953, is the most famous Sherpa.
