Hello! My name is SherpaKyidug.org. I am one of the gazillion
web sites in this entire world of cyberspace called the World
Wide Web. I do not think of myself as serving millions or hundreds
of thousands or even thousands but a rather small community
and ethnic group; a miniscule percentage of this world called
the Sherpas and feel very fortunate to do so. In my own way,
I feel unique.
My Birth
Let me tell you how I was conceived and born. (Please don’t
stop reading. I am fully aware of the family nature of this
publication. My conception and birth was not like that of
human beings.) Before my arrival in this world, there was
a site of the group at America on Line (AOL), created by a
gentleman named Sangay Sherpa. There, many Sherpas posted
messages, pictures and announcements regarding your community
in New York. I am sure that group site was helpful to many
of you.
Sangay then wanted to broaden this idea of the AOL group
site to a fullfledged Internet web site, where not only you
from New York, but also anyone around the world could join.
He contacted his brother-in-law, Sange Lama, an undergraduate
at Connecticut College. Sange has knowledge of web designing
and the willingness to do something helpful for the Sherpa
community.
At a celebration of the Buddha Jayanti in Dhaka Club in Queens
in May 2002, the two in-laws; Sangay and Sange (mind you,
although they sound the same but, are spelt differently, that’s
how I can tell they’re not twins), approached the then
board member of the Sherpa Kyidug; United Sherpa Association,
Sonam G. Sherpa with their idea of creating a web site for
all Sherpas. This issue of creating a web site had been discussed
in some of the Kyidug’s own board meetings and when
volunteers came forward to creating it on their own, what
more could the board members ask but to give them an enthusiastic
thumbs up!
So I understand that my creator, which you humans call a
“webmaster”, Sange, got to work and started designing
how I should look and what functions I should perform. Day
and night, on his laptop, Sange toiled to give me my form.
My creation had begun in earnest.
In your world, you human beings don’t name a child
until he or she is born. But in my world of web sites, a name
has to be chosen before official birth. So, on April 2002,
Sange registered me officially, and named me “SherpaKyidug.org”.
That day, I was partially born and I remained in that form
for sometime - unlike humans, we can be that way too.
At this same period, my creator, Sange, returned to your
country, Nepal, to help out his family business. And he continued
my creation there. After months of working, I was finally
born in my full form. It was in the early weeks of December
of 2003 when my birth was officially confirmed. Speaking of
birth, is my first birthday coming soon? Party garne hoina?
My Upbringing
Announcement of my birth was spread by word of mouth, and
I think it brought great joy to you. I am eternally indebted
to you for your generosity and your efforts to nurture me
from the beginning. Not having to do all the thinking and
planning and to make me a better web site, my creator, Sange,
asked for help from visitors who frequented my domain and
utilized me for various activities such as reading, posting
and sharing. When Sange started a thread “How can we
improve this web site”, I was glad to see that suggestions
poured in from all walks of life. Some of you even felt the
need to announce my existence through archaic means of communication,
i.e. the postal service. I hear that post cards were designed
and mailed to some 300 Sherpa households in the United States
and because of this, I started receiving members in dribs
and drabs. I am grateful to the user named “kings”,
a.k.a. Tsewang Sherpalama, since he volunteered to pay all
the costs for sending these postcards. Any one can view my
contents but only registered members can post messages, pictures
and other cool stuff. It doesn’t cost a dime to become
a member. It’s free!
My Official Recognition
During Buddha Jayanti at Union Square in New York in June
2004, my existence was announced by Sherpa Kyidug; United
Sherpa Association. Mr. L. G. Khambache, president, offered
a Khata, to my creator, Sange Lama. Using a computer and the
Internet, he offered a ‘cyber khata’ on Sange’s
picture and thanked others who assisted in my creation and
maintenance.
Ownership
Humans are very possessive by nature. So questions inevitably
came up, who owns me?
From the very first day of my creation, it was envisioned
that I would ultimately be owned by Sherpa Kyidug and operated
under its direction with some help from a ‘web committee’.
However, since I would like to serve all Sherpas, I personally
like to believe that I belong to all the Sherpas in the world.
Although my legal ownership resides with Sherpa Kyidug, I
want to clarify that I am here to serve you all. Therefore,
I would like to request that you all take good care of me
and direct me on how to best serve you. After all, as the
saying goes; “Garbage in, garbage out”, I am only
as good as what you feed me. Again, please consider me your
own, make contributions to me and use me as a platform to
share opinions, ideas and suggestions to better serve the
Sherpa community.
Web Committee
In October of 2004, with the recommendation of the web master,
I mean my creator, Sherpa Kyidug formed a committee to help
maintain me. This web committee consists of the following
fellow Sherpas:
- Sange Lama; Web master.
- Dawa Lama; Web master.
- Sangay Sherpa; administrator.
- Tsewang Sherpalama; Fund, advisor and contributer.
- Lakpa T. Sherpa; Fund and advisor
- Ngawang Karsang Sherpa; editorial,
- L.G. Khambache; Kyidug,
- Pema Choten Sherpa; Kyidug and
- Sonam G. Sherpa; administrator.
I am sure the committee will discuss and invite more members
when required.
As the web committee members, they will come up with ideas
to improve my features. You should see the e-mails that are
exchanged among members during discussions. I actually tracked
about twelve emails being exchanged within the group in a
single day, going back and forth, and discussing vigorously
how I should be made better. Wow, I love these guys! I am
pretty sure that these guys will always be willing to listen
if anyone has any suggestion regarding my development.
Things I've Tride to Help You With
Many of you seem to have loved the “Photo Gallery”
where pictures always come in loads. I can tell that people
in various parts of your world love to see those pictures
and familiar faces in far off lands.
Discussion forums have actually started to bring serious
conversations. Some of you posted poems that pleased many.
In fact, one poem called “I have failed them”
even brought tears in my eyes. I see now that you are engaged
in many topics of importance to you, your family, your community
and things in general at my discussion forums. I hope all
these discussions will help you in making better judgments
and make compromises when needed.
Although I don’t want to see tears in your eyes, they
dropped on me as I announced loss of your loved ones. But
I was also fortunate to announce news of joy in your global
community — birth, wedding, graduation or employment.
Through my Events section, I have noticed
you plan your schedules and check for dates that could potentially
clash with other events.
You even posted some links of my ‘siblings’;
other web sites that you think would help your own siblings,
family and friends.
Exciting Additions
The last two months brought to you entertainment in the form
of songs. You have probably heard some exceptional songs written
by a fellow Sherpa of yours, Tsewang Sherpalama. Many of his
songs are about you and your community. There are also some
notes sung by some of you at the 2002 Losar Party. Once in
a while, I personally enjoy you hearing those songs through
me.
Speaking of your fellow Sherpas, Tsewang Sherpalama, who
goes by the log on id “kings”, came up with an
interview feature called E-Talk. Through ETalk, he would like
to bring to you the views of other Sherpas who have done well
in their respective fields. As you cannot get to know many
things without a medium such as mine, it is a great way also
to learn about the members in your community, no matter where
they are physically. It is important to know successful people
in your midst and appreciate their achievements, rather than
complaining about the lack of respect for such individuals.
If you appreciate them first, I assure you that others will
follow.
You have all made me quite popular in the last few months.
I love you all! But I have to ask you to do even more. Share
me with your friends and families, here in the U.S. or back
home in Nepal or anywhere where they have Internet, and tell
them of the importance of my existence and the things I do
for you and others. With involvement from all of you, I will
be more popular, and I want to be more popular. I love the
limelight, as it is a sign that I am serving you well.
My Brithday
As Sherpas, and for that matter, humans in general, celebrate
birthdays, I am celebrating my first one too. I have picked
my birthday on December 12 (1212 does look familiar, as in
ss1212?). But unlike humans, we web sites don’t have
parties or family get-togethers. However, we accept birthday
gifts – and those gifts are as pledges of cash or checks
only. These pledges are needed to pay for my existence to
an Internet hosting site, in the same way that you humans
have to pay taxes to the U.S. government for your existence
in the U.S. The Internet Gods passed this law – so it
is sacred. If you feel like wishing me a happy birthday, please
go to my section, “JOM” and pledge your gift to
me. Oh please, don’t tell me you don’t have money.
I do talk to my cousins at Citibank.com and all other banks.com.
They tell me how much money you have stashed away in your
accounts there.
I will be remiss if I didn’t thank all who contributed
for my upkeep and maintenance through Jindak of the Month
(JOM) campaign in October 2004. Due to your generosity $919.40
was raised.
Happy surfing, y’all.
SherpaKyidug.org
