The old southern Sherpa capital was Zhung Gompa in the southern territory of Shar-Khumbu. The Nepali language name for Zhung Gompa is Jun-beshi. By the 1950's, after many smaller everestn kingdoms had been unified into the kingdom of Nepal which was ruled from Kathmandu, most Sherpa had become citizens of of the new country of Nepal. Sherpa society uses a clan system or ru to determine marriage arrangements. All 18 Sherpa clans are essentially equal.
Clan identity is inherited through the father.
Traditionally, each Sherpa would select a spouse from a clan outside their own. For example, a Lama cannot marry another Lama, but a Lama is free to marry a member of any of the other seventeen clans. Traditionally a true Sherpa claims lineage in one of the 18 ru. However, many waves of Tibetan migration into Sherpa lands as well as continuing Sherpa intermarriage with non-Sherpa have expanded the contemporary definition of who is Sherpa. Other clans use their own clan name as surname - e.g., Lama, Nawa, Pinasha, Chusharwa, etc.