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

e honoured, and proceeding through dog pul8 day to cow, ox and final iy
younger brother, Crow appeared to pass without significance in
Tamaphok, a1 though on dog pu-i3- day it was possible to see a few dogs
(usually the most maltreated animals) with marigold flower garlands
( m u > round their necks.
iaksnmi was often represented as a cow, and so the following day was
known as Lakshmi-pu.18. In the morning, the house was purified with mud
and cow dung, and a winnowing basket was filled with a mixture of maize
flour and marigold petals, which was given to local cows as part of the
garlanding puJ& ceremony in the morning, before anybody had their meal.
During the day, women and children would be involved in mairing
flower garland decorat ions for their houses. From the decorations in
the shop near the school run by a Brahmin woman which we visited
beforehand we could see that Lakshmi-~ui8 was going to mean a lot more
to her than it did to the Yakha in our jives. The evening puja for
Laksnmi amongst our family was a pretty quiet affair. After supper, all
the metal objects such as water pots, plates, bowls and jeweilery were
put in the corner and were decorated with garlands, lamps and incense
sticks. Everyone entering the kitchen was asked to give a token sun of
money. A small pu.ia was performed by a woman throwing rice over the
display, Then everyone in the kitchen had a glass of warm raksi.
People sat around for a while before going to bed.
Groups of boys came in the night singing songs with a repetitive
chorus of ' bhai lo'. They were given uncooked rice by the householder.
It seemed that the celebrations surrounding iakshmi-pu.ib had become less
elaborate in recent years. Our female assistant remembered how she used
to be part of a dokini group - girls dressed up going round the vii lage