KEY POINTS:
Nepali Buddhist priests, wearing maroon robes and singlets, offered special prayers at a memorial service yesterday for Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary.
Sir Ed died last week at the age of 88.
Blowing brass pipes and hitting cymbals, Lamas, the holymen from Nepal's Sherpa climbing community, braved the morning mist and gathered in an ancient monastery in a Kathmandu suburb to pray for Sir Ed's rebirth.
"We are offering this special Buddhist religious service for Hillary, praying for his reincarnation," said 51-year-old Nawang Gyalsen, the head priest of the Thame monastery who travelled to Kathmandu from the remote Solukhumbhu district where Mount Everest is located.
Meanwhile locally there have been increasing calls for the public to be able to remember Sir Ed through a public holiday.
The Green Party is proposing an annual public holiday on the day Sir Ed was born.
Others have suggested a one-off public holiday on the day of his state funeral, or a public holiday on February 29 of a leap year.
Sir Ed's state funeral will be held in Auckland on January 22, and the task of organising it is well underway.
Sir Ed eschewed the idea of a formal memorial to him and said he wanted the work of the Himalayan Trust he started to live on.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said that in 2003, when the 50th anniversary of the Mt Everest ascent was celebrated, the Government made an ongoing commitment to the trust's work and that had meant an enormous amount to Sir Ed.
"Our thinking would be very much in that direction," she said.
The Himalayan Trust set up in the early 1960s raised US$250,000 ($325,000) annually and has helped build 26 schools, two hospitals, an airport and pipelines in the remote area.
"He was our second father," said 47-year-old Thukten Sherpa, who went to a school opened by Sir Ed in the region.
"One gave us birth and the other opened our eyes."
In a rare gesture in 2003, Nepal made Sir Ed an honorary citizen during the 50th anniversary celebrations of the historic climb in recognition of his contributions to the impoverished nation.
Nawang Tenzing Jangbu, the incarnated Lama of the Tengboche monastery situated in the shadows of Mount Everest, led the special memorial service in Kathmandu yesterday.
A big portrait of a smiling Sir Ed wearing a hat was mounted on a chair in front of a huge metal statue of Buddha as butter lamps were lit in the main prayer hall of the yellow cement and brick monastery.
Sir Ed's funeral will be held at St Mary's, a small church which neighbours Auckland's Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and will be televised live.
Miss Clark will be among the speakers at the funeral, along with family members and friends.
Screens might be set up in Auckland so people could see what was happening.
Sir Ed's body will lie in state at the Holy Trinity Cathedral for 24 hours before the funeral, giving people the opportunity to say their personal goodbyes.
Many councils have opened books of condolences and in the condolence book in the Beehive foyer at Parliament, pages are filling fast with messages from the public.
- NZPA
