The most encouraging impact of tourism here is falling unemployment. Unlike most of Nepal, where people leave their villages for better opportunities in the cities or in the Gulf, people here have increasingly taken control of the business themselves — locally and in Kathmandu.
Our quality of life has genuinely improved — better food, better clothes, more material goods. People earn as porters, cooks, guides, lodge owners or employees, shopkeepers. Healthcare has come a long way too; we now have health posts, hospitals and dental care, where before we only had traditional healing, which couldn't do what modern medicine can.
Sherpa people are honest and don't dwell on wrongdoing — but we're getting more competitive on a material level. I've noticed neighbours quietly competing over whose house is bigger, whose looks better.
Children have more freedom now — more opportunities, and a more open relationship with their parents than before. I only hope the environmental cost of all this — deforestation, poor waste management — starts to ease. Weak enforcement around building is part of the problem; more people are putting up less traditional buildings, which changes the scenery and, I think, something of our culture too. Resource extraction is still the biggest cause of environmental damage here — maybe tourism can eventually offer an alternative to it.
Her overall verdict, in the end, is a hopeful one — imperfect, but glad it happened the way it did.