Through strange coincidence, I once met Sir Edmund Hillary on a flight from New Zealand to Singapore. I remember him as a towering figure, very tall, like a force of nature. He smiled at me, and went back to whatever he was doing in the front row of coach class. He and I also happen to share the same birthday.

This article is a tribute to him.

"Burra Sahib (big Sahib), our children have eyes but they are blind and can not see. Therefore, we want you to open their eyes by building a school in our village of Khumjung", was the answer from a Sherpa friend to Sir Edmund Hillary's question in 1960 how he could help Nepal's Sherpa people. He immediately went to work to raise funds and was able to build the school one year later.

"It is impossible not to see that they lack all the things that we regard as essential in life. They don't have schools and they don't have any medical care or anything of this nature. And I suddenly decided that instead of just talking about it - why didn't I try and do something about it.", he said, explaining the reasons for establishing his humanitarian project, the Himalayan Trust, to assist the impoverished in Nepal.

Since this first school, the Himalayan Trust has built a further 26 schools and provides financial support to an additional 33. The Trust expanded its work beyond education and now includes projects related to health, reforestation and cultural preservation, ensuring that all projects are planned and implemented jointly by the local community and the Trust. With international support from various Hillary and Himalaya foundations in the the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Germany, the Trust:

• provided scholarships for Sherpa children
• built two hospitals and more than 12 health clinics
• initiated a reforestation program with three nurseries
• became involved in cultural preservation through the rebuilding and renovation of local monasteries, Chortens (pagodas) and prayer wheels.
• built Lukla airport (gateway to Everest) in 1964 to facilitate the transport of building materials, equipment, hospital and school supplies. Today, this airport has become one of the busiest domestic airports in Nepal, bringing economic prosperity for the local people.

Today, Sir Edmund Hillary passed on, at the age of 88. The world probably knew him best as the first person, together with Sherpa Tensing Norgay, to conquer Chomolungma (Mount Everest), the highest mountain on Earth - part of the Himalaya range between Nepal and Tibet. On May 29th, 1953 "I continued on, cutting steadily and surmounting bump after bump and cornice after cornice looking eagerly for the summit. It seemed impossible to pick it and time was running out. Finally I cut around the back of an extra large hump and then on a tight rope from Tensing I climbed up a gentle snow ridge to its top. Immediately it was obvious that we had reached our objective. It was 11.30a.m. and we were on top of Everest!", he writes in his diary Nothing Venture, Nothing Win. He describes the landscape below them and continues: "Tensing and I shook hands and then Tensing threw his arms around my shoulders. It was a great moment! I took off my oxygen and for ten minutes I photographed Tensing holding flags, the various ridges of Everest and the general view. I left a crucifix on top for John Hunt and Tensing made a little hole in the snow and put in it some food offerings - lollies, biscuits and chocolate. We ate Mint Cake and then put our oxygen back on. I was a little worried by the time factor so after 15 minutes on top we turned back at 11.45."

Many in the Sherpa community consider Sir Edmund Hillary a second father. "His work changed the life of the whole Sherpa community. Without his work, especially the schools, the Sherpas would be nowhere," the vice president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association told AFP. Today, many Nepali friends are lighting butter lamps and offer special Buddhist prayers for his reincarnation as a human being.

I offer this Bahá'í prayer:

O my God! O my God! Verily, thy servant, humble before the majesty of Thy divine supremacy, lowly at the door of Thy oneness, hath believed in Thee and in Thy verses, hath testified to Thy word, hath been enkindled with the fire of Thy love, hath been immersed in the depths of the ocean of Thy knowledge, hath been attracted by Thy breezes, hath relied upon his supplications to Thee, and hath been assured of Thy pardon and forgiveness. He hath abandoned this mortal life and hath flown to the kingdom of immortality, yearning for the favor of meeting Thee.

            O Lord, glorify his station, shelter him under the pavilion of Thy supreme mercy, cause him to enter Thy glorious paradise, and perpetuate his existence in Thine exalted rose garden, that he may plunge into the sea of light in the world of mysteries.

            Verily, Thou art the Generous, the Powerful, the Forgiver and the Bestower.

Godspeed, Edmund.