Hillary's ashes not scattered on summit

KATHMANDU - The ashes of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to summit Mount Qomolangma, will be kept at a memorial near the mountain and will not be scattered on the peak as he had desired, a sherpa official said on Friday.

Hillary, who climbed the highest peak on earth in 1953 along with Nepal's Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, died in 2008 at the age of 88 in New Zealand. He had requested that his ashes be scattered on the world's highest mountain and over Auckland's harbor. A Nepali sherpa climber, Apa Sherpa, who holds the record for the most successful Qomolangma ascents, was to scatter Hillary's ashes, which have lain in a monastery in the area, next month.

But Ang Tenzing Sherpa, chief of sherpa citizens' group Khumbu Civil Society, said scattering the ashes on the mountain, considered sacred by the sherpa community, would be against their culture.