Just as he did 50 years ago, Edmund Hillary rode through the centuries-old lanes of Kathmandu in a horse-drawn carriage on Tuesday, cheered by thousands of Nepalis crowding footpaths and clinging to temple steps.

The tiny Himalayan kingdom is feting the 83-year-old former beekeeper from New Zealand, now Sir Edmund, to mark Thursday's 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest, a feat that kicked off a tourism boom in the impoverished nation.

Garlanded with marigolds, bougainvillea and a yellow Buddhist prayer scarf, Hillary drew loud cheers and claps when he spoke at Hanuman Dhoka as a band played wedding music and curious monkeys hung from temple roofs.

"Today is a fantastic celebration of the warmth of the people of Nepal for their mountaineers who have climbed their great Mount Everest," Hillary told a large crowd packing the 300-year-old square lined with Hindu and Buddhist temples.

Bemused Hindu holy men looked on and school children in grey and white uniforms lined parts of the route for the parade, some holding small signs in Nepali and English with slogans such as: "May God give us the strength to be like you" and "Summiteers are the pride of us."

Camera-wielding tourists mobbed the dais and local residents watched from rooftops and balconies.

"I am here to welcome Edmund Hillary," said 11-year-old student Ruben Bajracharya, who had stood on the cobblestone lane for an hour-and-a-half holding a sign in Nepali saying: "A guest is like God. He is a big mountain climber."

About 450 summiteers are in Nepal for the anniversary, including the first woman to scale Everest, Japan's Junko Tabei, and the first man to climb alone, and without bottled oxygen, Reinhold Messner, who accompanied Hillary in Tuesday's parade.

Although organisers are trying to recreate the nationwide celebrations that swept Nepal in 1953, just a few years after it was opened to the outside world, one crucial ingredient was missing: Tenzing Norgay, the Nepali who climbed with Hillary to the 8,850 metre (20,035 feet) summit.

Tenzing died in 1986, but his son and grandson, who have both reached the top of Everest themselves, are part of the celebrations.

Also missing are the nationalistic posters of 1953 showing Tenzing hauling a limp Hillary to the summit. Hillary insists he reached the top a few metres ahead of Tenzing.

Tall and lanky when he reached the roof of the world half a century ago, Hillary is now grey and stooped, walking with the help of a hiking stick.

But he is setting a gruelling pace of speeches, media events and official functions as he jets around the world for the anniversary.

"A wonderful experience, a great 50th anniversary of the ascent of Everest," he wrote in the Kathmandu city visitor's book on Tuesday.