ABSTRACT
This chapter explores disasters and negotiations of death as moments of personal liminality to glean insights around how Sherpa climbers adapt to changes within the Solukhumbu of Nepal. Liminality exposes a space to critique development and a potential to mobilize collective agency, further providing insight into the resiliency of communities. Moreover, disaster and death, as moments of liminality, which can be conceptualized as an integral part of a community's adaptive capacity, may not always generate new and emerging possibilities for communities. The chapter proposes that disaster and existential concerns such as death, as liminal moments, can be seen as central to the adaptive capacities that contribute to community resilience as a process of "becoming". It examines disasters and negotiations of unexpected death to glean insights around how Sherpa climbers and their communities adapt to the sudden changes and the slow and continuous development within the Solukhumbu, commonly known as the Mt. Everest region.
