THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

favour of forms of land tenure more lucrative for the state, In 1791,
according to Regmi, Ran Bahadur Shah sent inspectors to the eastern
districts with instructions to confirm lands as kipat only where
documentary proof of title could be provided (ibid:543). There have
subsequently been repeated attempts at the national level to weaken the
system in favour of the forms of state landlordism which existed
elsewhere (Caplan, 1970; Regmi, 1978).
It does not seem, at least initially, that the Shah kings had any
more influence over the traditional headmen than had the Sen kings
before them, As Regmi puts it, "although they were incorporated in
Prithvi Narayan Shah's rapidly expanding empire, he found it more
expedient to bring the Kiratis under the general suzerainty of the
Gorkha dynasty than to annex their territory outright. He therefore
recognized the local chiefs and guaranteed the security of the rights
and privileges they had enjoyed under the Sen kings" (1978:539>.
Hooker, travelling in the early part of the 19th century, was surprised
to find that Bhote Limbus in Olangchung (now Walungchung) were paying
taxes to both Nepal and Sikkim. The Limbus, Hooker wrote, being
"equally dependent on Nepal and Tibet, they naturally hold themselves
independent of both, and I found that my roving commission from the
Nepal Rajah was not respected, and the guard of Gorkhas held very cheap"
(1854: 149-50).
There was certainly benefit for the Shah kings (as indeed there had
been for the Sen kings before them) both to depend on and to have as
dependants a class of local headmen who could act as their
representatives in otherwise ungovernable areas. Thus, as tlme went on,
the powers of these headmen, such as controlling the distribution of