BBC NEWS
Wedding on top of Mount Everest
* A Nepalese couple have exchanged wedding vows on top of Mount Everest,
the first people ever to marry there. *

They briefly took off their oxygen masks and put on plastic garlands,
while the groom symbolically applied red powder on the bride's forehead.

Moni Mule Pati and Pem Dorjee Sherpa were part of the Rotary Centennial
Everest Expedition earlier this week.

They had kept the plan secret as there was no guarantee they would reach
the top of the world's highest peak.

Arriving back in Kathmandu, the bride said it would not have been
possible to meet all the religious requirements, so they did what they
could with what was available.

	* People are people so there's no problem about caste *
Pem Dorjee

The couple stayed on the peak for a mere 10 minutes which gave enough
time for the ceremony and for friends to take photos.

Other climbers were "very surprised, they are really shocked" Ms
Mulepati told the BBC's Newshour programme.

They plan to hold a more formal ceremony soon.

* Interracial marriage *

Mr Dorjee said other couples had wanted to do the same in the past, but
none had managed because they could not get up on top of the peak together.

Fearing the same possibility, they had kept their own plan secret.

The surprised families have welcomed the marriage, which is also unusual
because it cuts across Nepal's deep-rooted caste and ethnic divisions.

"If some people are loving each other they have to get married," Pem
Dorjee told the BBC. "That's why we want to give all Nepali people [the
message] that people are people so there's no problem about caste."

One Nepalese paper joked that this was a marriage which, if not made in
heaven, was solemnised closest to it.

* Record *

It has been a busy week of mountaineering at Mount Everest at the start
of the popular spring climbing season.

On Monday, 45 climbers scaled the 8,850-metre (29,035-feet) peak -
including Pem Dorjee and Moni Mulepati.

Nepalese Appa Sherpa broke his own world record by climbing it for the
15th time while two Iranian climbers became the first Muslim women on
top of the peak.

A helicopter also crashed at the Everest base camp but there were no
major injuries.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4605711.stm

Published: 2005/06/03 13:51:23 GMT

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