Katmandu, Nepal ? From modest Sherpas to the royal family, Nepal celebrated the 50th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest on Thursday, honoring Sir Edmund Hillary, who with his late Sherpa partner, Tenzing Norgay, made the climb that inspired a generation to push the limits of human endurance.

Nepal granted Hillary honorary citizenship for his five decades of service to the Sherpa community. He has helped build schools, hospitals and an airfield that has opened the once pristine mountain to hundreds of climbers each year and brought wealth to Sherpa communities.

Norgay died 17 years ago. His son, Jamling Norgay, told 225 others who have scaled Everest that they were celebrating “a day in history where my father and Sir Edmund Hillary made the climb of this formidable mountain, taking us humans a step further into the spirit of adventure.”

About 1,300 people have climbed the world’s highest peak, and all those still living were invited to the weeklong party that Nepal’s government hopes will spur tourism.

“Everest is not the most difficult mountain in the world, but it’s the most famous,” said Scott Darsney, 41, of Unalaska, Alaska, who climbed the mountain in 1992. He said he was partying every night with old friends and catching up with the Sherpas who helped him along the way.

“This happens only once every 50 years,” he said, “and I don’t think I’ll be around for the next one.”

Hillary, an 83-year-old former beekeeper from New Zealand, said he declined a chance to celebrate the anniversary in London with Queen Elizabeth II even though the British government organized the 1953 expedition. Instead, he shared a celebratory dinner with his Sherpa friends after a tea party given by Nepal’s King Gyanendra and Queen Komal.

Teodor Tulpan, who led Romania’s first expedition to the summit on May 20, patted his heart and said it was emotional being in the same room as Hillary, but said he was saddened at the sight of frozen corpses of mountaineers who died trying to reach the 29,035-foot summit. The risk of trying to bring bodies down is too great and there is no soil in which to bury them.

Sir Edmund Hillary, left, greets Nepalese Crown Prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev, right. Hillary and other Mount Everest mountaineers were on hand Thursday in Katmandu, Nepal, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the conquering of Mount Everest. On May 29, 1953, Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first to scale the 29,035-foot summit. About 1,300 people have since climbed the world's highest peak.

“I was feeling very bad because we were seeing the dead bodies of people,” he said. About 175 people have died trying to reach the summit.

Prime Minister Lokander Bahadur Chand recalled “those brave climbers who lost their lives” as he honored a parade of cheering mountaineers.

“Climbing is about freedom and fun,” said British mountaineer Allan Hinkes, who has climbed all but two of the world’s 14 peaks higher than 26,250 feet.

“It’s important that you encourage more and more people to come, so you can tap into that little gold mine called Everest,” Hinkes said. “People want to go to the summit of the world.”

A record 22 expeditions went up the mountain this season, and the government, which collects $75,000 per group, has no plans to cut back.