Thousands pay tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary
Thousands paid homage on Tuesday to Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to scale Mt Everest, at a rare state funeral in New Zealand, news reports said.
"His loss to us is bigger and heavier than Mount Everest," Ang Rita Sherpa, Himalayan Trust chief administrator, told Reuters in a small church in Auckland.
"He is our true guardian and our second father, but he has left us behind today," he said.
Hillary's coffin was draped in the New Zealand flag, cream-colored Nepali prayer scarves, and Hillary's climbing axe and specially carved walking stick, as saffron-robed Buddhist monks, Nepali Sherpas and grey-bearded mountaineers paid tribute to the Everest conqueror
Prime Minister Helen Clark was among some 600 guests inside St Mary's church along with Hillary's widow June, son Peter and daughter Sarah, and Norbu Tenzing Norgay, the eldest son of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa who accompanied Hillary on his epic 1953 ascent.
Clark told the mourners that Hillary, who died on January 11 of a heart attack at the age of 88, was "the most famous New Zealander of our times."
"Sir Ed described himself as a person of modest abilities," Clark said. "In reality he was a colossus, he was our hero.”
At the ceremony the Sherpa representatives reminded mourners that Hillary meant as much to them as to New Zealanders.
In the years after he and Sherpa Norgay Tenzing stood on the summit of the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) peak on May 29, 1953, Hillary started a foundation to build schools and medical facilities in the impoverished region.
The Himalayan Foundation built or supported 63 schools, two hospitals, a dozen medical clinics, and established safe drinking water systems, bridges and miles of trails, said Norbu Tenzing Norgay, the eldest son of Hillary's companion.
Himalayan Trust chief administrator, Ang Rita Sherpa, also spoke of the Sherpa people's grief.
Hundreds of mourners stood outside or in Auckland's adjacent Holy Trinity Cathedral during the service, while thousands more watched on huge screens set up in other parts of the city and around the country, AFP reported.
Telecasts of the funeral were beamed live around the world, including to Nepal and Antarctica, while high-level political and diplomatic representatives from around the world joined the mourners in the wooden, gothic-style church.
Hillary's son Peter, also a mountaineer who has climbed Everest twice, spoke of his gratitude for being introduced to a life of adventure by his father, who in 1957 led the first expedition to the South Pole by vehicles.
"I think Dad was a real people's hero. He was real, he was the genuine article," he said.
At the end of the service, the coffin was carried from the church through an honour guard of mountaineers with their ice picks held aloft.
Meanwhile, the United Sherpa Association in a statement issued Tuesday described Edmund Hillary as a heroic figure “who not only conquered the Everest, but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity.”
“Sir Hillary's life was marked by grand achievements, high adventure, discovery, excitement, and by his personal humility. Our Community have been benefiting from his decades-long campaign to set up schools and health clinics in remote regions of Nepal, the main homeland of Sherpa people.” nepalnews.com ag Jan 22 08
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