MountainZone.com Home

MountainZone.com Home

Search
MountainZone.com



Google

CHECK OUT:






Ama Dablam 2002
The Cultural Lore Of Ama Dablam

» TEAM  » DISPATCHES  » MAPS  » PHOTOS  » FACTS  » CULTURE  » HOME

Ama Dablam and the Thyangboche Gompa
The Monastery at Tbyangboche
Photo: Wally Berg

To understand the mountain, one must know about the region and its people. Ama Dablam's name tranlates to the mother's charmbox, mother's pendant, or mother's necklace. The significance of this is based upon the Khumbu Region's mountain people, the Sherpas.

One of the most well known group of Nepali people, the Sherpas originally came from eastern Tibet around the fifteenth century. They founded many small villages at the bases of some of the greatest peaks in the world, including Mount Everest. As their culture evolved, the names of mountains were familiarized in the Khumbu. These names were quite often influenced by the Sherpas' great reverence for the mountains that surrounded them. Many believe, through folklore, that gods and goddesses inspirit the mountains which tie the earth and sky together. The magical empowerment of the mountains guard the land, people and animals within their domain.

As time passed, Eastern religions began to greatly influence the Sherpa culture also. Buddhism became a prominent and very commonly practiced religion. It was believed to have evolvee in the mountain regions of Nepal at the end of the 1600s under the influence of Lama Sange Dorjee who was the fifth incarnate of the Rongphu Monastery situated in Tibet. The tale was that he flew over the Himalayas and landed on a rock at Pangboche and Thyangboche, where there is now an important monastery, known as a "gompa", in Tibetan and Sherpa. Upon his movement to the area, his footprints were "embedded" in the rocks where he stepped. The first gompas, or monasteries, in the mountain region were believed to be built at Pangboche and Thami under his direction.

Village of Phunky Tenga en route to Thyangboche
The village of Phunky Tenga en route to Thyangboche
Photo: Peter Potterfield

As the people viewed the mountain from these holy places, it became evident in their eyes and culture that Ama Dablam resembled a woman with her arms open (ridge lines on each side of the summit) and the very well defined ice bulge was the pendant or charm box which hung around the woman's neck (the main summit brow.) The word Ama means mother or Grandmother, and the word Dablam means charm box, referring to the special amulet worn by Sherpanis, especially older, more traditional style Sherpa women. The mountain watches over Pangboche, and that part of the Khumbu valley, with outstretched arms, like a grandmother sheltering her extended family.

Part of the Buddhist influence to the lore of Ama Dablam is that the traditional dablam worn by formally dressed Sherpanies included a small figure of Buddha within its star shaped design.