One of the first two individuals to scale the Mt Everest for the first time in the world, Tenzing Norgay Sherpa was the most famous and influential people from Nepal. He scaled the summit together with Sir Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953 and became the first Nepali to scale the summit.

Roughly translating Tenzing Norgay gives the meaning, a wealthy-fortunate-follower-of-religion. He worked as a guide for many mountaineers who attempted to scale Mt. Everest from Tibetan as well as Nepali side without any success. He became a part of two Swiss expeditions led by Raymond Lambert who tried to scale Mt. Everest from Nepali side in 1952. However, they could only reach record height of 8,599m.

In March 1953, he was a part of John hunt expedition that being his 7^th climb on the Everest. The team consisted of 400 people with 20 Sherpa guides among which Tenzing was a one. He also saved Sir Edmund Hillary from a fall into a crevasse and due to the failure in equipment some of the climbers were sent down, however, the two of them were ordered to continue the climb. On May 29, 1953 they reached the summit of Mt. Everest (8848m) at 11:30 in the morning.

Together with the Mt. Everest team in 1953, he received the George Medal from Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal. Also awarded the Order of the Star Nepal, first Class by King Tribhuwan of Nepal in 1953, he received the Padma Bhusan (the third highest civilian honor by the Government of India) in 1959 and was honored by the creation of the Tenzing Norgay Award in 1978 by the Indian Government.

He also became the director of field training for the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in India and founded his own company, the Tenzing Norgay Adventures. At the age of 71 the cerebral hemorrhage took his life in the year 1986. The Lukla Airport was renamed as the Tenzing-Hillary Airport in their honor.