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

few weeks ear!ier during Dasai-> told me she was harvesting the rice to
use at her wedding. Her husband-to-be was returning from the British
Gurkhas the following month, and if he brought her a green Dote
(marriage neck lace! they could get married j n Magh (January-February) ,
When I returned to my family, I was told this was a lot of nonsense,
since the woman had already been married (to a Gurkha soldier) for three
years! The khdi5 I had been given by the woman - soya beans and maize
kernels in an ornately woven leaf plate - also provoked some comment.
All Kamala would say was that it was not usual for them to eat soya and
maize kh8.i8 during that season (our family's own khd.i8 that day was
broken rice with powdered pickle and chestnuts, washed down by rice
cube). At another point during that day, I had a joking session with a
man working in his fields below. We yelled to each other up and down
the hillside, principally concerning the whereabouts of our wives.
The next job was trampling the rice (dai ~arnu), This could either
be done in one of the larger paddies (the surface of which was smoothed
down using 'lipnu' techniques) or in a family's yard. Bamboo poles
called (miyo - Turner 1931:508) were erected in the yard. These
were decorated at the top with ~hurmis (Leudosceptrum canurn) leaves,
marigolds and rice straw, Ghurmis leaves are noteworthy because while
the outsides are green the insides are a greyish beige colour (Pokhrel
et a1 2040 V.S6:379). Perhaps they symbolised the transformation which
was taking place with the rice from green dhan to yellow carnal.
Trampling the rice, like harvesting it, was also a jolly time. Two,
or sometimes even three, oxen were attached to the mehe by a rope with a
loop on one end, and were then directed round by a men or woman carrying
a switch and singing a distinctive song (m takmaci!. Little children