Thame

Thame (3,820m) is a quiet Sherpa village in the Bhote Koshi valley, west of Namche Bazaar, a half-day's walk from the main EBC trail. It is the most accessible off-trail village in the Khumbu and makes an excellent acclimatisation day or overnight from Namche. The valley is less dramatic than the main Everest corridor but has a more authentic feel — fewer trekkers, more yaks, and a working monastery that is one of the oldest in the region.

The Thame Monastery (3,820m) is built into a cliff face above the village, requiring a steep climb of about 20 minutes from the main trail. The monastery was founded in the 17th century and contains old thangkas, gilded statues, and a library of Tibetan texts. The Mani Rimdu festival is also held here (usually in May) before the more famous celebration at Tengboche in autumn.

The trail from Thame continues west towards the Nangpa La (5,716m), the traditional trade and migration route between the Khumbu and Tibet. This crossing is no longer open to trekkers, but the walk up the Nangpa Glacier moraine below the pass gives a sense of the remote upper Khumbu that most trekkers never reach.

things to do trekking sight
A story
Thame is the birthplace of Tenzing Norgay, who reached the summit of Everest with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953. A plaque marks his childhood home in the village. Apa Sherpa, who holds the record for most Everest summits (21 times as of 2011), is also from Thame. The village has produced more high-altitude climbers than almost any other settlement in the world, a tradition going back to when Sherpas began acting as high-altitude porters for Western expeditions in the 1920s.