Solu, the Sherpa homeland below Khumbu
Sherpas call Solu Shorong. When their ancestors crossed the Nangpa La from eastern Tibet roughly 500 years ago, some settled in high Khumbu and others moved south into Solu's gentler valleys, where barley, potatoes and later apples grew well. Solu became home to many of the older Sherpa monasteries and wealthier landholding families, and its gompas, Chiwong, Thubten Chholing and others, remain centres of Sherpa religious life.
Chiwong Gompa was founded around 1919–1923 by a lama from Tibet, on a cliff above the valley chosen for its commanding view. Like Tengboche and Thame, it stages Mani Rimdu, the masked-dance festival that came from Rongbuk Monastery in Tibet. At festival time families walk in from villages across Solu, and the courtyard on the cliff fills with brocade, masks and incense.
Phaplu itself grew with the airstrip and with the hospital that Hillary's Himalayan Trust built here in the 1970s to serve the people of Solu. Today a road links Salleri and Phaplu with Kathmandu, a long day by jeep, and the old trail north to Khumbu, once the only route, is walked mainly by trekkers who want the slow way in.
