New Delhi, Sept. 2 -- It's only 8am as my plane descends at Tenzing-Hillary Airport. We are in Lukla (2,860m), in Nepal's northeastern Solukhumbu district, which includes the Khumbu region. As the gateway to the Sagarmatha National Park, and home to Mount Everest and other peaks, it attracts over 52,000 from across the globe annually.

More than 350 kilometres from Kathmandu, the cobbled, pedestrian-only path outside Lukla's airport is already alive with trekkers, stopping at Sherpa-run tea houses over breakfast and chatter, before setting off on the trail.

The Sherpas are an ethnic community indigenous to Solukhumbu. The name Sherpa is derived from the Tibetan word shar (meaning east) and pa (meaning people). Originally from Kham in eas...