βWasfia, you changed Bangladesh forever.β
π
I am the cloud,
The rainbow,
The dancer
Wandering through the Sky...
I am that rebel you cannot tie
The fire that multiply
The water that Breathes
Life Into the unconscious
The thunder
To reckon with
The Adventure you seek in dreams.
I am that Tree
With roots all the way
Back to the Stars,
I have no fixed Home,
I whirl
At the mercy of
The Mother's wrath
I am the light,
The clarity,
The luminosity
Singing beyond
All realms of disparity...
My mind, is Free.
Come ~
Fly with meβ¦
π
Use code ''WASFIAβ at checkout for 20% OFF your ticket
Image: International Womenβs Day, Antartica, 2024.
A C T I V I S M
Flow with Wasfia | Bruce Lee Podcast
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Flow with Wasfia | Bruce Lee Podcast γ°οΈ
Wasfia Nazreen: Living untethered and free
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Wasfia Nazreen: Living untethered and free γ°οΈ
Revering Mountains | Be Here Now Podcast
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Revering Mountains | Be Here Now Podcast γ°οΈ
GQ Interview (French)
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GQ Interview (French) γ°οΈ
In convo with Chris Fowler | ESPN/ABC
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In convo with Chris Fowler | ESPN/ABC γ°οΈ
Time to Walk with Wasfia Nazreen | Apple Fitness+
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Time to Walk with Wasfia Nazreen | Apple Fitness+ γ°οΈ
See All This : βTo Be a Pilgrimβ
At its essence, to live is to be forever departing or arriving, asking or answering. To be a pilgrim is to exist, convene, and converse within the valleys that form between these opposing peaks. To be a pilgrim is to choose curiosity and to embrace uncertainty that aggregates in the subconscious.
Through his poetry that sings in the language of reality, David Whyte, wanderer and guest curator of this issue, ignites both internal and external dialogues. So feast upon places, chew on questions and indulge in the richest of stories you might never have encountered.
Six pilgrims bring us along on their journeys. The βwhyβ behind their quests varies from soul to soul. Mountain climber Wasfia Nazreen has faced the worldβs highest peaks to connect to the βtrue identity of the mountainβ. Nomadic artist Sven Signe paces his life to rhythms outside the Βstatus quo. Pierre H. Brinker explores what it means to exist in a body as it moves through sickness. Artist Agnes Denes is no longer able to travel but the seeds of her art carry across the world. NaΓ―ma Asouaguiaβs pilgrimage to Mecca reinvigorated her faith, while nuclear disarmament activist Satish Kumar walked for peace.
This winter, See All This invites you on a pilgrimage. Let this edition be your companion for the season. May this issue be an endless journey, carrying you from where you are now, past your own frontiers, to the person you have yet to meet.
#36: Out Now: Dutch and English. Cover photo: Inga Powilleit.
Order now:
Featuring essays and historic photographs from thirty-eight National Geographic Explorers, including Wasfia. All proceeds from this book support early-career field scientists, explorers, and conservationists pursuing innovative projects across a wide range of disciplines.
www.thefutureofexploration.org
HH the 14th Dalai Lama, worldβs most recognized refugee, exploring panoramic photos of his occupied homeland Tibet and her shrinking glaciers. These photographs were taken by Wasfia from the summit of Chomolungma (Everest) which falls on Tibet and Nepal border. Courtyard of Holinessβs home-in-exile, Dharamsala, Northern India, August 2012.
In 1933, at a time when Nepal was closed to the world, it was the 13th Dalai Lama who had opened the route by giving permission for the then fourth British attempt of making the first ascent of the mountain. A successful ascent was not made until twenty years later, in 1953, by the legendary hero of Nepal, Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and famed New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary, both part of the then ninth British expedition, which was led by British Army officer Lord John Hunt.
Image courtesy: Office of HHDL.
βReaching the summits physically reminds us of the equal importance of reaching the moral summit, which will then bring about happiness and peace to individuals, families, societies, and through these to nations and the world. It is wonderful that Wasfia has successfully climbed Chomolungma/Mount Everest, which goes to show that all of us, all genders, are equal and have the same potential.β
Wasfia Nazreen addresses the Class of 2024 at the 135th Commencement of her alma mater
Agnes Scott College, May 11th, 2024.
βWasfia was a captivating and compelling speaker on our
βIn The Elementβ panel at SXSW.
Her point of view and expertise on what exploration, adventure
and discovery mean in our modern world is a deeply needed
breath of fresh air.
She is an antidote to the old boys club,
and an enormously inspiring figure to all who hear her speak.β
ββ¦While the theme of Wasfiaβs talks was womenβs empowerment,
one thing was clear:
every single person, no matter the gender or age,
walked out feeling
EMPOWERED.β
Video from the Wai Wai Collective, courtesy Hawaiβi Technology Academy, shot by Ellemsee Media.
Wasfia Nazreen is the first Bengali in the world and only Bangladeshi to have successfully climbed, amongst others, K2 and the Seven Summits, the highest mountains of every continent.
Her passion has always been propelled by causes close to her heart and grounded in a strong foundation of meditation and self-realization practices. Thanks to a tragic beginning in life, Wasfia learnt early the true meaning of home. She went on to work with those who were βhomelessβ and has risked everything, over and over again, for the causes she believes in. In the fields of development and non-profits, mountaineering, guiding, storytelling, and education, she forged her own path far away from the arranged marriages and status quo for women in her country and chose instead to keep climbing.
An outspoken activist since her late teens, Wasfia has won numerous national and global awards for her activism and commitment to empower women through the field of adventure. She was named by Men's Journal as one of the 25 most adventurous women of the past 25 years and by Outside magazine as one of the 40 women in the last 40 years who have advanced and challenged the outdoor world through their leadership, innovation, and athletic feats.
Wasfia is the only female to hold the simultaneous titles of National Geographic Explorer & Adventurer, and won the Peopleβs Choice Award at National Geographic Societyβs 2016 Explorers Symposium.
WATCH THE SHORT FILM WASFIA
Greetings~ thank you SO much for visiting!
Iβve been extremely blessed this lifetime to witness many corners of this globe where few only dream to go. Not many from my own motherland can claim to have explored all seven continents and the mighty oceans that embrace & cradle them. Throughout my 24+ years of traveling & living like a nomad, I was shown enormous generosity & kindness from countless beings who opened up their homes and lives to me and made me their family. As a seeker, I have always aspired to find, honor and remain in my authentic higher self, to the best of my abilities, while struggling to grow as much as I can through lifeβs myriad battles & my own human flaws. Even if I have failed miserably many times, traveling and witnessing the beauty & suffering of others only fueled me to ultimately gain a better understanding of my inner self.
While I want to, in whatever small way spark that growth for others, I feel an obligation and desperate urgency to voice the enormous effects of our greed & overconsumption on the fragile ecosystem of our planet, our only home.
Born and raised in Bangladesh, having had lived in the two coastal cities of the country, we were vulnerable and at the mercy of the yearly furies of floods, typhoons, rising sea-levels, and so on. Naturally, respect for Mother Nature was deeply ingrained in my psyche since I was a toddler. Over the decades, as I got to explore the planet, I continued to witness firsthand so much more - from shrinking glaciers to habitat loss, the multi-faceted effects of climate change are immeasurable and accelerating at an unprecedented rate! Now we have reached a tipping point and we need all of us across the board to unite at all costs. Even though we should not have to reach such extremes to get our hearts & minds together, the HOPE is, there ARE solutions. No act is too small, EACH step counts. But we DO need ALL of us to get our acts together, URGENTLY.
I hope through our kinship, we are better able to facilitate a connection to self, to humanity, and most importantly, to our ultimate Mother - this sacred Earth. Because only by witnessing and understanding our interconnectedness and experiencing a bit of our collective karma, which surpasses beyond the mortal human realms, we are better able to progress toward a more resilient tomorrow. We are not visitors on this planet, we ARE mother Earth - and as citizens of this planet, who continuously reap infinite benefits from this magically beautiful home, we can only aspire to leave Her better than we found her.
I hope you will join me and my friends to commit to ACTIONS, that promise a sustainable reality for all of us.
As we say in Bangla, βAshi!β meaning βComingβ instead of βGoodbyeβ¦β
Always in Love
~*~
Wasfia
βThis isn't just some restless voyager who needs a thrill every season. This is the purposeful traveller who carries causes in her backpack, this is the nose-pierced rebel who cuts away at the stifling threads of convention.
Because here is 1.67m of toughness: A child of divorce, who ran away from home, lived with her aunt, arrived in Atlanta at 17 for college with two suitcases amid gun violence, educated herself, fought for Tibetan rights, was inspired by Buddhism, got a marriage proposition from a tribal chief in Indonesia's Papua province and worked to stop violence against women in her homeland. Whether she walks on water in her spare time cannot be confirmed.
This is a story of a Bangladeshi, but it is more than a Bangladesh story. It is a story of choice, of setting forth, of challenging customs, of helping out, of inquisitiveness, of nature, of action and of a world out there beyond ourselves. It is the story of Wasfia Nazreen and it tells us what we should already know but still have to keep saying: Women can do anything.β
- The Straits Times Editorial
Image courtesy: UNESCO, Paris.
βWasfia is our dream incarnate.
She makes us touch the sky, she makes us take leaps of faith, she is why little girls continue to dream.β
βBe an inspiration. Be adventure.β
