Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa is a photographer, conservationist, climbing historian, and Sherpa cultural specialist. Overcoming an affliction of deafness acquired at the age of 20, Lhakpa Sonam has been a high altitude climber, trekking guide, lodge owner, and museum curator, building the first Sherpa Culture Museum in Namche Bazaar in 1994. 

His interests include Tibetan Buddhism, political history, and the history of the early Sherpa migrations to Khumbu valley. Lhakpa is also an internationally acclaimed photographer whose exhibits have been displayed in Europe, the U.S., and Japan where he is renowned for his world famous landscape panoramas of the Mt. Everest region. Sonam Photography outlet store is in Namche Bazar but printed posters are sold and shipped worldwide.