Three Cups of Tea

List of People Mentioned in the Book

(Western names are listed last name first alphabetically and Pakistani names are listed first name first alphabetically.)

Abdul Jabbar: Pakistani professor at the City College of San Francisco who joined the board of directors of the Central Asia Institute.

Abdul Shah: the watchman at the hotel where Mortenson is staying in Rawalpindi, who aided Mortenson in bargaining for supplies for building the school in Korphe.

Akhmalu: the cook who accompanied Mortenson’s K2 expedition, who later tried to pressure Mortenson into building a school in his village of Khane before building one in Korphe.

Ahmed Rashid: leading authority on the link between madrasa education and the rise of

extremist Islam.

Ahmed Shah Massoud: known as the Lion of the Panjshir, charismatic leader of the Northern Alliance, former mujahadeen, whose military skill had kept the Taliban from taking northernmost Afghanistan, who was murdered by Al Qaeda assassins on September 9, 2001.

Amartya Sen: Nobel Prize winner whose key idea it was that you can change a culture by giving its girls the tools to grow up educated so that they can help themselves.

Apo Razak: a veteran at feeding large groups in inhospitable mountain terrain, he became head cook for the Karakoram Porter Training and Environmental Institute’s training expedition.

Atal Bihari Bajpayee: India’s prime minister.

Aziza Hussain: Zuudkhan woman, village’s first health care worker sent to Gulmit Medical Clinic by CAI.

Badam Gul: the man met in Peshawar who volunteered to guide Mortenson to Ladha, his home village, when Mortenson was scouting locations for more schools.

Balti: the mountain people who populate the least hospitable high-altitude valleys in northern Pakistan.

Bashir Baz, Brigadier General: confidante of President Mousharraf who provide helicopter transportation to Mortenson.

Bergman, Julia: Jennifer Wilson’s sister, who had visited the school in Korphe and seen her brother-in-law, Jean Hoerni’s name on a plaque before meeting Mortenson and becoming a member of the board of directors of the Central Asia Institute. As a librarian, she found culturally appropriate books for the Institute’s schools. After 9/11, she accompanied Mortenson from Peshawar to Kabul to bring supplies to schools, including Uzra Faizad’s Durkhani School

Bhangoo, Brigadier General: one of Pakistan’s most experienced high-altitude

helicopter pilots.

Bishop, Barry: Tara Bishop’s father, a National Geographic photographer who was part of the first American expedition to summit Mt. Everest. He died in a car accident a year before Mortenson met and married his daughter.

Bishop, Brent: Tara Bishop’s brother who, with Mortenson, organized Pakistan’s first porter training program.

Bishop, Lila: Tara Bishop’s mother, and Mortenson’s mother-in-law.

Bishop, Tara: Greg Mortenson’s wife.

Brokaw, Tom: the television news anchor who was the only one to respond to Mortenson’s first batch of letters seeking donations for the school in Korphe.

Central Asia Institute (CAI): the organization funded by Dr. Jean Hoerni to continue Mortenson’s work building schools in the mountainous region of Pakistan.

Changazi, Mohammad Ali: a corrupt trekking agent and tour operator who organized the K2 expedition Mortenson was on, and who stole some of the supplies Mortenson had stored in his shed in Skardu.

Darsney, Scott: a climber on the K2 expedition that Mortenson was on, who was hiking out with Mortenson when Mortenson got lost.

Durighello, Joy: teacher at the City College of San Francisco, who with fellow teacher Bob Irwin organized a teacher-training workshop to be held in Skardu each summer, and who compiled a permanent resource library for all of the Central Asia Institute’s teachers.

Faisal Baig: a Wakhi tribesman and chaperone to George McCown who later volunteered to become Mortenson’s bodyguard.

Fatima Batool: a girl whose village in the Gultori Valley in Pakistan, Brolmo, was bombed in the escalation of the ongoing war between Pakistan and India. Her sister Aamina was killed in the bombing.

Fedarko, Kevin: former editor for Outside magazine who quit his office job to report in the field, Pakistan.

Fida: a master Skardu tailor who transported bales of fabric, boxes of thread, and sewing machines to Korphe for the Korphe Women’s Vocational Center.

Fine, Etienne: one of the three leaders of the K2 expedition from which Mortenson was returning when he became lost. He had to be rescued after ascending too quickly and suffering pulmonary edema.

Flinn, John: travel editor for San Franciscan Examiner who promoted a Mortenson lecture in the Bay area.

Gannon, Kathy: AP bureau chief in Islamabad.

Ghulam Parvi: an accountant in Skardu, known and respected as a devout Shiite scholar.

Gillette, Ned: an American climber and former Olympic skier who was killed while trekking in the Haramosh Valley, between Hemasil and Hunza. The Ned Gillette School in Hemasil was named after him.

Haji Ali: the nurmadhar, village chief, of Korphe, the village to which Mortenson promised a school, the first school that he built.

Haji Ibramin: the nurmadhar, village chief, of Chunda who got his village’s men to work with Mortenson to pipe clean mountain water to the village to drastically reduce infant mortality in the village.

Haji Mirza; the man in Kot Langarkhel who became Mortenson’s host, but from whose house Mortenson was kidnapped.

Haji Mousin: the nurmadhar, village chief, of Pakhora, an especially impoverished community in the Lower Braldu Valley, the site of the CAI’s second school.

Hawa: Hussein’s wife who, with Sakina, asked Mortenson to fund the Korphe Women’s Vocational Center.

Hillary, Sir Edmund: New Zealand beekeeper, who, with Tenzing Norgay of Nepal, was the first person to scale Mt. Everest. Neither man ever revealed who was first to set foot on the summit.

Hoerni, Dr. Jean: Swiss-born physicist who patented the “planar process” of packing information onto a circuit, which paved the way for the silicon chip. Dr. Hoerni was the philanthropist who funded Korphe’s bridge and school and, upon his death, bequeathed the endowment to fund the Central Asia Institute. Husband of Jennifer Wilson.

Hussain: Mortenson’s driver, once he had bought a Toyota Land Cruiser. Hussain stowed a box of dynamite under the passenger seat of the car so they could blast away rock slides that blocked the road.

Hussein: Korphe’s most educated man, who became the first teacher in Korphe’s school.

Ibrahim: one of the Korphe school’s construction crew, whose wife Mortenson saved from septic shock after she gave birth.

Imran Khan: Pakistani cricket hero whose portrait adorned the trucks of fans despite Islam’s prohibition of representative art.

Irwin, Bob: teacher at the City College of San Francisco, who with fellow teacher Joy Durighello organized a teacher-training workshop to be held in Skardu each summer, and who compiled a permanent resource library for all of the Central Asia Institute’s teachers.

Jahan: Twaha’s daughter, Haji Ali’s granddaughter, who had been one of the Krophe School’s best students was one of the CAI’s first scholarship students.

Janjungpa: head high altitude porter for a lavish Dutch-led expedition to K2 during Mortenson’s time on the mountain, who later tried to pressure Mortenson into building a climbing school in Khane.

Khan: a man who drove Mortenson from Peshawar to Kot Langarkhel, his ancestral village where Mortenson was kidnapped.

Khan: the assumed name of the man who managed Mortenson’s release from his confinement near Kot Langarkhel.

Kishwar, Syed: the owner of Lazar Images in San Francisco who taught Mortenson how to use a computer to produce hundreds of letters seeking donations to fund the school in Korphe.

Krakauer, Jon: author of Into Thin Air introduced Mortenson at a fundraiser for the CAI.

Lowe, Alex: neighbor and friend of Mortenson, perhaps the world’s most respected Alpinist, who introduced Mortenson at Montana fundraiser.

Makhmal: a mason who helped to build the Korphe school

Mazur, Dan: one of the three leaders of the K2 expedition from which Mortenson was returning when he became lost.

McCown, George: member of the board of the American Himalayan Foundation, along with Lou Reichardt and Sir Edmund Hillary. Karen McCown’s husband.

McCown, Karen: founder of a charter school in the Bay Area who became a member of the Central Asia Institute’s board of directors. George McCown’s wife.

Mohammed Aslam Khan: the nurmadhar, village chief, of Hushe who convinced Mortenson to build a school in his village.

Mortenson, Amira Eliana: Greg Mortenson and Tara Bishop’s daughter.

Mortenson, Greg: author and main character of Three Cups of Tea.

Mortenson, Christa Eliana: sister of Greg Mortenson, who was twelve years younger and who contracted acute meningitis in Africa, never fully recovered and died of a massive seizure on her twenty-third birthday.

Mortenson, Irvin “Dempsey”: Greg Mortenson’s father, who became a teacher in the country of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in Africa.

Mortenson, Jerene: Greg Mortenson’s mother.

Moshi, John: Dempsey Mortenson’s Tanzanian partner in founding and running the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center.

Mother Teresa: Albanian born nun whose missionary work gained world renown.

Mouzafer Ali: a Shiite, the Balti porter who was carrying Mortenson’s tent and supplies when Mortenson got lost, and who rescued Mortenson.

Mullah Omar: Taliban supreme ruler.

Murphy, Dervla: Irish nurse who crisscrossed the Karakoram in deep winter on horseback with her five-year-old daughter and wrote about it in her book, Where the Indus is Young.

Pervez Musharraf: Pakistan’s president.

Nawaz Sharif: Pakistan’s prime minister.

Niaz Ali: the only eye doctor in Baltistan, he was sent by Mortenson to the renowned Tilanga Eye Hospital in Nepal where he learned how to perform cataract surgery.

Norberg-Hodge, Helena: author of Ancient Futures, who spent seventeen years in Ladakh, a region like Baltistan, but cut off from Pakistan by arbitrary borders drawn by colonial powers across the Himalaya.

Pratt, Jonathan: one of the three leaders of the K2 expedition from which Mortenson was returning when he became lost.

Reichardt, Dr. Louis: one of the first Americans to reach the summit of K2, as a friend of Mortenson’s, he advised him to return to Hoerni for funds to build the bridge necessary for getting building supplies to Korphe for the school.

Relin, David Oliver: co-author of Three Cups of Tea with Greg Mortenson

Rhokia: Twaha’s wife who died giving birth to their only child.

Rhokia: Ibrahim’s wife, whom Mortenson saved from septic shock after she gave birth.

Richard, Terry: outdoor writer for the Oreagonian who first brought Mortenson’s story to attention.

Rigby, John: director of the Institute of Rural Reconstruction in the Philippines who taught Mortenson how to set up tiny businesses for the rural poor that could quickly turn a profit on a small investment.

Sakina: Haji Ali’s wife, without whom he said he was “nothing at all.” Along with Hawa, she asked Mortenson to fund the Korphe Women’s Vocational Center.

Shakeela: the cleverest of Mohammed Aslam Khan’s nine children, whom he was anxious to educate in their village of Hushe.

Sher Takhi: Korphe’s religious leader.

Sheikh Mohammed: a religious scholar who petitioned for a school to be built in his village of Hemasil and wrote to the Supreme Council of Ayatollahs in Qom, asking Iran’s leading clerics, the ultimate authority of the world’s Shia, to rule on whether the fatwa on Mortenson was justified.

Slaughter, Christine: assistant hired to help Mortenson to organize his basement.

Suleman Minhas: Rawalpindi taxi driver who became Greg Mortenson’s “fixer,” a person who can cut through red tape, in Islamabad.

Syed Abbas Risvi, the religious leader of northern Pakistan’s Shia Muslims.

Tabin, Dr. Geoff: an American cataract surgeon whom Mortenson arranged to offer free surgery to elderly patients in Skardu and Gilgit.

Tackle, Jack: famed climber who donated twenty-thousand dollars to help CAI estanblish the Jafarabad girls’ elementary school.

Tahira: Hussein’s daughter, one of Korphe’s School’s first female graduates who received a scholarship to continue her education after she graduated from the Korphe School.

Tenzing Norgay: Nepali sherpa who, with New Zealand’s Sir Edmund Hillary, was the first man to scale Mt. Everest. Neither man ever revealed who was first to set foot on the summit.

Twaha: Haji Ali’s son

Uzra Faizad: principal of The Durkhani High School and an advocate for female education helped to reopen the shattered school to forty-five hundred students, including girls.

Vaughan, Tom: a pulmonologist at the UCSF Medical Center where Greg Mortenson worked, and a climber.

Villard, Marina: a resident in anesthesiology at the UCSF Medical Center, she was Greg Mortenson’s romantic interest early on during his efforts to build a bridge and school in Korphe.

Wazir: a tribe that is loyal to neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan, they are Pashtuns.

Wilson, Jennifer: Jean Hoerni’s widow, who became a member of the Central Asia Institute’s board of directors.

Zaman: a local contractor in Pakhora who led the effort to build a stone school there. He and other volunteers built the school in twelve weeks.

Zahir Shah: King of Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973, who founded Afghanistan’s first modern university and recruited foreign academics to develop the country, but was exiled from Afghanistan for thirty years.