Ang Tharkay (1907 – 28 July 1981) was a renowned Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber and explorer who acted as a guide and later sirdar for many Himalayan expeditions.

Ang Tharkay (his name is also often written Angtharkay or Angtarkay) was born in 1907 to a poor family in Kunde, just north of Namche Bazaar in the Solukhumbu district of Nepal, near Mount Everest.

[16][17] He was on the 1935 British Everest expedition and it was because of Ang Tharkay that a friend of his, Tenzing Norgay, got his first engagement as a Sherpa guide.

[11] Ang Tharkay was sirdar in 1937 for Shipton's five-month survey of 1,800 square miles (4,700 km2) of Karakoram territory north of K2 and again on the 1938 Everest expedition.

Herzog and Lachenal, descending from the summit, had dreadfully frostbitten feet and had to be carried down by the Sherpas, including Ang Tharkay.

There followed twenty minutes of further loud argument after which he came back to the sahibs, grinning – they were to be released for payment of seven rupees which Ang Tharkay had been arguing down from ten.

[2][4] In 1962 he had to be coaxed out of his retirement to be sirdar for an Indian expedition to Everest where they reached the South Col.[2][21] This made him the oldest person to climb to eight thousand metres.

[4] The Royal Geographical Society said of Ang Tharkay, "He was exceptional as both climber and sirdar, and his character won high praise from all who knew him".