An anti-government uprising in his home country of Nepal convinced Pushkar Shah to ride his bicycle around the world to spread the message of peace.
Now, Shah plans to scale the slopes of Mount Everest to plant the flags of the 150 countries he visited on his 11-year journey.
Shah ended his 135,000-mile world tour last November when he returned home. He had visited four continents and visited the sites of many conflicts, such as Beirut (above), the Congo, and East Timor.
He also bicycled across the US (he was mugged in New York) and Great Britain.
In an interview with the Agence France Presse, the 40-year-old cyclist said:
“My aim was to spread the message of peace and to see the world. I want to climb Everest for the same reason. I want to take all the flags I collected to the top of Everest.”
At his website, Shah says he plans to follow the Tenzing-Hilary root from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp; he plans to bicycle as far as he can.
Shah will be hiking with a team called the Peace Expedition 2010.
Shah has been commited to peace for a long time. He writes:
“As a young man, I experienced first-hand what it is like to lose a loved one to senseless violence, then as a college student I took great pride in my involvement in the student movement to create democracy, only to become increasingly frustrated over the subsequent years with the apparent failure of my country to achieve the democracy and peace for which I had so yearned. It was my sense of frustration and feeling of helplessness to change the situation of my country from within which compelled me to look beyond the borders of Nepal.”
After the completion of his bike tour of the world, we wish him all the luck on his hike to the top of the world.
Photo above from Beirut photo album at Pushkar Shah's website.
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