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

divisions were starting to break down, at least in Tamaphok. For
example, our father told us that the Rai groups had once been regarded
by the Yakha as lowly and not to be married witn, This attitude had
palpably changed by the time of our fieldwork, as there were many
examples of Yakha men who had brought Rai women into the community as
marriage partners. The Gurungs were supposed to be higher than the
Yakha: they were not supposed to eat pigs or buffalo (although some
Gurung living in Tamaphok pancgyat kept pigs which they sold to the
Yakha), and until quite recently, it was said, they wouid not have eaten
at all in a Yakha household (although again they would take water from
the Yakha).
Many writers have contrasted the caste hierarchy of the Indo-
Nepalese with the supposed egalitarianism of the Tibeto-Burmans, (e.g.
the Tamang - Holmberg 1989; the Sherpa - FUrer-Haimendorf 1975; the
Gurung - Doherty 1975). However, such a contrastive model makes it
difficult to understand the attitudes of so-cailed 'heavily Hinduised'
groups such as the Yakha who appear to have adopted the principles of
the caste system so wholeheartedly in their dealings with other groups
while apparently having little to gain from it. Reassessing the
dichotomy, some writers have found evidence of indigenous hierarchies
amongst Tibeto-Burman groups such as the Newars, Gurungs and even
Sherpas. Yakha strategy seemed rather to take on board the be1 iefs and
values associated with Hinduism where they fit into pre-existing notions
and to discard them where they did not, Thus while caste-like attitudes
were or had been associated with relations with other groups (apart from
the Limbu, the mythical brothers of the Yakha), within the group, as we
shall see in Chapter Five, more egalitarian attitudes prevailed.