SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA
Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was born in the sixth century B.C. in what is now modern Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the Sakya people and Siddhartha grew up living the extravagant life of a young prince. According to custom, he married at the young age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara. His father had ordered that he live a life of total seclusion, but one day Siddhartha ventured out into the world and was confronted with the reality of the inevitable suffering of life. The next day, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his kingdom and newborn son to lead an ascetic life and determine a way to relieve universal suffering.
For six years, Siddhartha submitted himself to rigorous ascetic practices, studying and following different methods of meditation with various religious teachers. But he was never fully satisfied. One day, however, he was offered a bowl of rice from a young girl and he accepted it. In that moment, he realised that physical austerities were not the means to achieve liberation. From then on, he encouraged people to follow a path of balance rather than extremism. He called this The Middle Way.
That night Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi tree, and meditated until dawn. He purified his mind of all defilements and attained enlightenment at the age of thirty-five, thus earning the title Buddha, or "Enlightened One". For the remainder of his eighty years, the Buddha preached the Dharma in an effort to help other sentient beings reach enlightenment.
TENZING NORGAY SHERPA
The world would have given its acclaim to any climber who was first on the summit of the world's highest mountain, but for Tenzing Norgay there was a special glory in this achievement.
Over a period of nearly twenty years, he had made himself a part of every expedition that set out to put a man on the top of Mt. Everest. He had climbed as a lowly porter and as a respected member of the climbing team. He had accompanied large, confident armies (such as the 1936 and 1953 British Everest Expeditions) on their way to the summit, but he had also gone to the mountain with a solitary climber, Earl Denman, in 1947, on the chance that even this might give him an opportunity to get to the top. By 1953, he had probably spent more time on Mt. Everest than any other human being - and had come closer to its summit. Only months before his successful climb with Edmund Hillary, he and Raymond Lambert of the 1952 Swiss expedition, had come within 1,000 feet of the summit -- the highest point that anyone had reached until then. Unlike most of his fellow Sherpas of the time for whom, by and large, climbing was just a challenging way of making a living, Tenzing desperately wanted to get to the summit of Mt. Everest and devoted most of his life to this goal. "For in my heart," he once said, "I needed to go . . . the pull of Everest was stronger for me than any force on earth." If there was ever anyone who deserved to get there first, it was Tenzing.
But there are other reasons why it was appropriate that he have that honor, with Sir Edmund Hillary. Until World War II, most of Asia had been under the domination of the West. By the early 1950s, its people were beginning at last to feel their own strength and identity, and Tenzing, by achieving a goal that the whole world recognized as one of its highest, provided a focus for a new kind of pride and a new view of the future. "For millions in the world today," wrote James Ramsay Ullman not long after the climb, "Tenzing is a manifestation of godhead: an avatar of the Lord Siva, a reincarnation of the Buddha. For still other millions, too sophisticated to confuse man with deity, he is a mortal figure of supreme significance. Symbolically as well as literally, Tenzing on Everest was a man against the sky, virtually the first humbly born Asian in all history to attain world stature and world renown. And for other Asians his feat was not the mere climbing of a mountain, but a bright portent for themselves and for the future of their world."
ANURADHA KOIRALA
Anuradha Koirala: Maiti Nepal's founder, director and guiding force.
Ms. Anuradha Koirala is the Founder and Executive Director of Maiti Nepal. Born in Nepal and former English teacher, Ms. Koirala started Maiti Nepal in a small house in Kathmandu with her own savings. Today she is a widely recognized activist and lecturer who has dedicated her life to combating the sexual exploitation of women and children.
Her accomplishments have been recognized through numerous awards. Her work is often dangerous and requires great personal sacrifice. The criminal elements that "deliver" young girls are a ruthless enemy and have political connections at the highest levels in India and Nepal. Maiti Nepal's main office in Kathmandu has been destroyed twice and Maiti workers must travel with a bodyguard when overseeing rescue missions in India.
Her commitment has been an inspiration to her largely volunteer staff. Most of the workers are rescued girls and young women who are healthy enough to work. "They need little incentive from me," states Ms Koirala. "They are working to help their sisters and they know the horror of the victims." She adds, "Society rejects me and my girls, but they are the most important thing in my life."
PRABAL GURUNG
Gurung was born in Singapore and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was in New Delhi, India that his design career truly began. While studying at New Delhi's National Institute of Fashion Technology, he apprenticed at several local production and fashion houses and designed with Manish Arora. Gurung's travels took him to Melbourne and London, where he assisted stylists for various fashion shows and international publications. In 1999, after seven years of traveling, Gurung moved to New York City. He began his career in New York interning for Donna Karan while attending Parsons School of Design. In his first year, he was awarded the "Best Designer" title at the annual Parsons / FIT design competition.
After Parsons, Gurung spent two years with Cynthia Rowley's design team, which allowed him to gain even more invaluable experience on both the design and business end of New York's highly competitive fashion scene. Soon after, he became the design director at Bill Blass. After five successful years, Gurung left his post at Blass to launch his own collection, PRABAL GURUNG.
Since the launch of his collection, Gurung has dressed leading ladies including Michelle Obama, Demi Moore, Zoe Saldana and Oprah Winfrey, to name a few. In 2010 he was the recipient of the Ecco Domani Fashion Fund Award and received a nomination for the 2010 CFDA Swarovski Womenswear Award. He was chosen by the fashion industry's leading editors, retailers, designers and business experts for one of the highly coveted design studios at the {CFDA Fashion Incubator} for 2010-2012. In November 2010, Gurung was selected as runner-up for the 2010 CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund. In 2011 Gurung was honored as one of USA Network's twelve Character Approved Award recipients.
Gurung presently resides in New York City.
source: http://prabalgurung.com/
