Since October 16th, Apple TV has been streaming "Tenzing": an Everest film that, for the first time, focuses not on Edmund Hillary, but on Tenzing Norgay. Who was this man whom the world long only knew as a companion – and how close does the film get to him?
May 29, 1953, 11:30 a.m., 8.848 meters. A man in heavy expedition clothing, his face almost completely obscured by an oxygen mask and glacier goggles, raises an ice axe into the air. After more than 30 years, numerous failed attempts, and many deaths, the first ascent of Mount Everest had finally been achieved. The ensuing media frenzy was enormous, and the summit photograph became one of the most famous of the 20th century. However, the fact that it shows Tenzing Norgay is far less well known: Edmund Hillary was behind the camera.
Tenzing Norgay: In the spotlight for the first time
Seventy-three years later, the man in the photo gets his own feature film. "Tenzing" premiered worldwide on Apple TV on October 16, having opened in select US theaters a week earlier. It was directed by Australian Jennifer Peedom, who gained recognition in 2015 with the award-winning documentary "Sherpa." Genden Phuntsok plays Tenzing Norgay, Tom Hiddleston plays Edmund Hillary, and Willem Dafoe portrays expedition leader John Hunt. See-Saw Films produced the film, with Tenzing Norgay's son, Norbu, serving as executive producer.
In the film, Tenzing has to convince expedition leader John Hunt that he is not just there to organize the Sherpas, but as a full-fledged member of the climbing team. The film contrasts the Western image of "conquering" Everest with Tenzing's spiritual view of the mountain: Chomolungma, the sacred mother goddess.
For a long time, Sherpas appeared only peripherally in Everest stories. Peedom said that as a young camerawoman, she witnessed Sherpas being cut out of films. Her 2015 documentary "Sherpa" brought them into focus. That same year, the Sherpas criticized the Hollywood film "Everest" for, in their view, significantly downplaying their role in the 1996 disaster.
From yak herder to mountaineer
Tenzing Norgay was born in 1914, though the exact date and place of birth are uncertain: he himself named the Khumbu region in Nepal, while later accounts point to the Kharta Valley in Tibet. His father was a simple yak herder, and as a young man, Tenzing moved to Darjeeling, at that time the starting point for most expeditions in the eastern Himalayas.
His opportunity came in 1935: Eric Shipton assembled a team for Everest exploration, a friend brought Tenzing into the picture, and by 1938 he had participated as a high-altitude porter in three British expeditions. His breakthrough came after the Second World War: During the Swiss expedition in the spring of 1952, he was for the first time not just a porter, but a full-fledged expedition member – and on May 28th, he reached 8.600 meters with Raymond Lambert, a new altitude record at the time.
The following year, it was the British who planned an expedition to Everest – with Tenzing as Sirdar (head of the Sherpas). He hadn't actually wanted to set off again so soon. Exhausted and a good seven kilos lighter, he had only recently returned from another expedition. Jill Henderson, secretary of the Himalayan Club in Darjeeling and organizer of the Sherpa teams, had to ask him several times. After weeks, Tenzing agreed – but only on the condition that he be considered a full member of the climbing team.
May 29, 1953: The summit success
The Hunt expedition was a massive logistical undertaking involving more than 400 people. The first summit team, Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, turned back on May 26th about 90 meters below the main summit when Evans' oxygen tank failed. Hunt then sent Hillary and Tenzing. They reached the summit around 11:30 a.m. on May 29th. Tenzing left sweets in the snow as an offering to the mountain, and Hillary left a small cross.
Barely back, the question circled the globe: Who had reached the summit first? Hillary and Tenzing agreed not to make the order public: What mattered was that they had reached the summit as a team. Only in Tenzing's autobiography, "Man of Everest," does it say: "Hillary was the first to reach the summit. I climbed after him." He claims, however, that he hadn't thought about being "first" or "second" for a single second during the ascent.
Hillary and Hunt were knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953; Tenzing received the George Medal. In India and Nepal, Tenzing was celebrated as a national hero after his success on Everest. As early as 1954, he secured a position at the newly founded Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, where he remained until 1976. In 1978, he founded the trekking company Tenzing Norgay Adventures. Tenzing died in Darjeeling on May 9, 1986.
"Tenzing" fact-checked: Fiction or reality?
A biopic has to condense, bring characters together, and invent scenes. Jennifer Peedom and Norbu Tenzing emphasize in an interview with "Climbing" that a feature film about Tenzing cannot reconstruct every episode with historical accuracy. The major milestones of the Everest story are correct: John Hunt initially chose Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans as the first summit team; however, Hillary and Tenzing were slated to be the second team from the outset. Bourdillon and Evans failed on May 26th; two days later, Hillary and Tenzing set off for the summit.
Tenzing's childhood, in particular, is dramatized for the film. There is no reliable evidence to support the claim that his parents deliberately abandoned him. Similarly, the encounter between the young Tenzing and George Mallory cannot be definitively verified.
The film also addresses the question of origin and belonging, condensing it into the character of Pasang. However, there is no historical evidence of a personal animosity between the two. In fact, Tenzing, as an experienced mountaineer and Sirdar, enjoyed high esteem among the Sherpas. Hunt's stance is also exaggerated in the film: although Tenzing was supposed to lead the Sherpa team, his exceptional mountaineering skills were already well known.
“Tenzing” tells the story of the first ascent of Everest from the perspective of one of its most important protagonists. In doing so, the film gives more space to a mountaineer whose achievement has long been overshadowed by Hillary's in many Western narratives – and at the same time reminds us of the crucial role the Sherpas play in the success of Everest expeditions.
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