Rongbuk Monastery also known as Dzarongpu or Dzarong is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Nyingma, Basum, Tibet. It is an important pilgrimage site of the sherpas which can be accessed in a few days travel across the Himalaya through the Nangpa La. Rongbuk monastery lies near the base of the north side of Mount Everest at 4,980 metres (16,340 ft) above sea level, at the end of the Dzakar Chu valley. The monastery was also regularly visited by the early expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s and 1930s after a five weeks journey from Darjeeling in the Indian foothills of the Himalaya. Most past and current expeditions attempting Mount Everst from the north Tibetan side do establish their Base Camp near the tongue of the Rongbuk Glacier about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of the Monastery.

Nowadays, the monastery is accessible by road in a two to three hour drive from the Friendship Highway from either Shelkar (New Tingri) or Old Tingri. From Rongbuk monastery, there are dramatic views on the north face of Mount Everest, and one of the first British explorers to see it, John Noel, described it: "Some colossal architect, who built with peaks and valleys, seemed here to have wrought a dramatic prodigy—a hall of grandeur that led to the mountain."

The climatic conditions in the Sagarmatha region change without prior signs. The team gears up for the summit attempts as the weather clears up and the men set out for the top. There is no time to waste, it's a now or never situation as the teams climbing permit expires by the end of the month may 2001.

Indian Army added another feather to its cap in May 2001, when its mountaineers successfully scaled Mount Everest and put a record eight members and seven Sherpas on the summit. This is the largest number of summiteers on Mount Everest in an Indian expedition.

The mighty mountain ranges of the Himalayas have, over the centuries, inspired not only man's imagination and spiritual quest, but also his spirit of adventure. Mount Everest, the tallest of the peaks of the Himalayas as also the whole world, stood in its unattainable isolation for thousands of years, till Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary conquered it in 1953. Since then, at least a thousand climbers have set foot on it.

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