Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala ( si, ජයන්ති කුරු උතුම්පාල, born 3 September 1979) is a Sri Lankan adventurer, professional rock climber, motivational speaker, and
LGBT and women's rights activist. She is the first person from
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
to summit
Mount Everest which she achieved on 21 May 2016. Kuru-Utumpala is an advocate for
women's rights in Sri Lanka
All ethnic groups in Sri Lanka have clear distinctions regarding the roles of the sexes. Sri Lanka was the first nation in the world to elect a female head of government, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Bandaranaike won the election in 1960 after S. W. R. ...
and has spent most of her adult life researching
gender studies and
women's rights. She formed a collaboration with fellow mountaineer
Johann Peries
Johann Peries, also spelt as Johann Pieris, is a Sri Lankan adventurer, mountaineer, and hair stylist. He formed a collaboration with Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala for several expeditions of Mount Everest. In April 2016, the two became the first Sri La ...
for several expeditions.
Biography
Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala was born on 3 September 1979 in
Colombo. Her father Nissanka is a mechanical engineer and her mother Jacinta was a manager in the hospitality industry. Her elder brother Rukshan attended the
S. Thomas' College
, motto_translation = Be Thou Forever
, song = Thomian Song
, athletics = Yes
, sports = Yes
, nickname = Thora
, denomination = Anglican
, patron ...
in
Mount Lavinia. She was described as a fearless person at her young age by her brother.
Career
Kuru-Utumpala joined
Bishop's College in 1984 for her primary education and also pursued her secondary education at the same school until 1998. After finishing her schooling, she joined the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in 1999 to pursue a diploma in journalism and communication. She joined the
Miranda House of the
Delhi University in 2000 and obtained her
BA degree in
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
in 2003. She also completed the military style 28-day Basic Course in Mountaineering and the 28-day Advanced Course in Mountaineering from the
Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in 2003 and 2004 respectively. She obtained a post graduate diploma in 2007 in women's studies from the
University of Colombo.
Kuru-Utumpala won a scholarship to study at the
University of Sussex in UK and obtained her
Master of Arts degree in
gender studies in 2009. She performed research on
women's rights while pursuing her higher studies and has also has given motivational speeches aimed at empowering schoolgirls. Since 2003, she has been a key member of Sri Lanka's women's movement, as well as a part of Women and Media Collective. She served as a specialist in gender and sexuality at
Care International
CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, formerly Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) is a major international humanitarian agency delivering emergency relief and long-term international development projects. Founded i ...
Sri Lanka in April 2015. In 2016, she was appointed as the first goodwill ambassador for women's rights in Sri Lanka by the then
Minister of Women's Affairs,
Chandrani Bandara Jayasinghe.
In 2017, she wrote about her own personal experience of receiving a rare public platform to challenge gender stereotypes in an article title
"After Everest: can mountaineering tackle gender myths in Sri Lanka?"
As part of her feminist activism, together with two other colleagues, she recently co-create
Delete Nothing- an online platform aimed at documenting technology related violence in Sri Lanka.
Kuru-Utumpala teamed up with
Johann Peries
Johann Peries, also spelt as Johann Pieris, is a Sri Lankan adventurer, mountaineer, and hair stylist. He formed a collaboration with Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala for several expeditions of Mount Everest. In April 2016, the two became the first Sri La ...
in 2011 and has worked with him in several successful expeditions, including summitting
Adam's Peak,
Island Peak in 2012,
Mount Kilimanjaro
Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and ab ...
in 2014, and her historic summit of
Mount Everest in 2016. As an avid rock climber, she has also been rock climbing in
Paarl Rocks in
Stellenbosch, South Africa,
Arneles Mendoza in
Argentina, the
Pyrenees in
Spain, Saxony Switzerland in Germany, in addition to climbing at her local crag at ClimbLanka in Horana.
In February 2019, Kuru-Utumpala and Peries officially signed as
brand ambassadors of the
Hatton National Bank.
Everest expedition
From 2012 Kuru-Utumpala and Peries trained to summit Everest and participated in various recreational activities, such as swimming and climbing.
In April 2016, the duo announced that they were on a mission to climb Mount Everest. They formed the Sri Lankan Everest Expedition campaign, 2016.
The expedition, which cost around
US$60,000, per person, was supported by the
mountaineering
Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...
company International Mountain Guides, who provided them with guide support, Sherpa support, logistics, meals, and accommodation during their expedition. Kuru-Utumpala and Peries were accompanied by
Nepalese Sherpas
The Sherpa are one of the Tibetan ethnic groups native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal, Tingri County in the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Himalayas. The term ''sherpa'' or ''sherwa'' derives from the Sherpa language words ("east") ...
Ang Karma (Kuru-Utumpala) and Ang Pasang (Peries).
Kuru-Utumpala reached the summit of Mount Everest successfully at 5:03 a.m. on 21 May 2016, while Peries was not able to complete the feat, as his oxygen tank failed before the summit. Peries attained a height of , which is beyond
Camp IV (the final camp on the southern ascent route, on the
South Col).
Kuru-Utumpala went on to become the first Sri Lankan as well as first and only Sri Lankan woman to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Kuru-Utumpala's summit also made Sri Lanka the fourth country in the world after
Poland,
Croatia and
South Africa, from which a woman was the first person to reach the top of Mount Everest.
Honours
Kuru-Utumpala obtained a special award from TV channel
Ada Derana as a part of the
Ada Derana Sri Lankan of the Year in 2016. She was also included in the
BBC's
list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2017.
In March 2019, she was named as one of the most influential women, and among women change-makers in Sri Lanka, by the
Parliament of Sri Lanka coinciding with
International Women's Day
International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...
.
In August 2019, she was one of the 66 recipients to receive
national honours for 2019 from the Sri Lankan President
Maithripala Sirisena.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuru-Utumpala, Jayanthi
1979 births
Living people
Sinhalese women
Summiters of Mount Everest
Sri Lankan feminists
Sri Lankan activists
Sri Lankan rock climbers
Sri Lankan mountain climbers
BBC 100 Women
Alumni of the University of Sussex
Alumni of the University of Colombo
Alumni of Bishop's College, Colombo
Delhi University alumni
People from Colombo
Sri Lankan LGBT rights activists