Proud Britons acclaimed the ascent of Everest as an achievement of the race that bore Raleigh, Nelson and Rhodes. To Asians it quickly became the personal—and national—triumph of a nut-brown little Sherpa who cannot read or write but who has grappled oftener with Everest (eleven expeditions) than any man alive.
When the victory news hit Nepal, where 37 year-old Tenzing was born, the government proposed that May 29 should henceforth be a national holiday, known as Tenzing Day. In India, where he lives (in a Darjeeling slum), a public subscription was opened to build him a new home, and when he and...