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

celebrations made into colourful and entertaining festivals which
involved the whole community in relaxation and enjoyment as well as
religious observance,
Dase 1 -
The festival of Dasai- was set according to the lunar calendar, and
could come any time between late September and mid-October. It was easy
to understand on climatic grounds alone why the festivals should take
place at this time of year, After a summer of predominantly monsoon
cloud and rain the weather cleared up, often quite dramatically as if
some celestial deity had switched off a tap, and the residents of
Tamaphok would awake to clear blue skies and a view of gieaming
mountains,
At the start of the nine-day Dasai- festival, women of the house
planted jamarti (pronounced juwara in Tamaphok), large woven leaf plates
filled with soil in which maize kernels were planted.", These were
watered, covered with a leaf lid and left to germinate in a dark,
windless corner of the house. They were supposed to germinate yei low:
greenness in the sprouts was attributed to the wind. As amongst other
groups, this was a time for general household spring cleaning and
repairs, outside and in, As we shall see in Chapter Five, Yakha houses
were quite often whitewashed with lime, and everyone tried to obtain
lime to cover their houses at this time. It was as if, after a summer
of rigorous work in the fields (see Chapter Six), people were turning
their attention back towards their houses again and giving them the
time they could not spare earlier in the season. When whitewashing was
in progress, it was quite usual to find the stonework around dharas also