KATHMANDU, May 27 Kyodo Everest c...

KATHMANDU, May 27 Kyodo

Everest celebrities, including modern Zealander Edmund Hillary and Japanese Junko Tabei, were honored with the felicitations of the citizens of Kathmandu forward Tuesday.

Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of Everest upon May 29, 1953, climbing from Nepal.

Tenzing is dead, further his son Jhamling Norgay and a grandson were among those honored for their subjugation of the world's tallest mountain (8850 meters) at a function held as part of a weeklong celebration to commemorate the historic triumph of Everest.

Receiving the accolades in the ancient palace square Basantapur in the heart of Kathmandu, Hillary, 84 said, ''This is a great honor. We are all great lover of the Himalayas and the Himalayan people''

He also paid tribute to Tabei, the first woman to climb Everest and to Reinhold Messner the first bodily form to climb Everest without using supplemental oxygen

The celebrities rode in a traditional Nepalese-style procession of Everest summiteers, mountaineers, Nepalese rule and other officials that passed by the agency of the main thoroughfare of Nepal's capital.

place of education children and a Gurkha army band l the procession.

Kimono-clad Tabei, 64 sitting nearest to Tenzing's son Jhamling in a two-horse carriage, said she was excessively glad to participate in the celebration.

Nearly 300 Everest summiteers were in the Nepalese capital to attend the celebration, which extremitys Thursday, the organizers said.

Everest has been climbed at more than 1,300 men and women including nearly 80 Japanese, since Hillary and Tenzing first establish foot on the arch of the world.

As the carriages of Hillary and Tabei passed between the walls of the narrow streets of Kathmandu, the bulk of mankind showered them with flowers and cluster s from their windows.

''They really merit the honor,'' said Arjun Shakya, a bystander.

''By climbing Everest he (Hillary) uncloseed Nepal to the world, and we owe him a intricate sense of gratitude,'' Shakya said.

Everest straddles the Nepalese-Chinese border and it is now climbed from the couple sides.

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