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

married into the Tamaphok Yakha community, There may we1 1 have been an
element of bravado in people's accounts of life in other parts of the
world, as well as a tendency to remember the past through rose-tinted
spectacles. Yet, whatever the limitations of the data, they do not
detract from the over-riding theme of this chapter, namely that it was
not just economic or social compulsion but a genuine interest in end
desire to experience the world outside the confines of Tamaphok which
led to the amount of Yakha migration we saw.
7.2 Bazaars
The main reason people had for leaving Tamaphok was to attend one of
the temporary weekly, bi-monthly, monthly or annual markets which were
held in the area. The word balBr in Nepali had been incorporated into
Yakha and was used, as in Nepali, to refer to any type of trading
centre. Thus the permanent shops in the roadhead town of Basantapur
were known col lec t ivel y as the bad Br However, i f someone in Tamaphok
said they were going to the baitir, they usually meant they were going to
attend one of the regular temporary markets, such as the weekly one in
Basantapur, or the much smaller one held in Sansare Mude, This chapter
describes these two h&T baj8r as we1 1 as an annual market known by its
proper name, Ranke Bazaar (RB-ke Balar).
The social and economic functions of markets were particularly
important in east Nepal because of the dispersed nature of most
settlements and the lack of 'centres' to most communities. Markets were
almost always situated at the confluence of regularly used paths through
the hills, or on a road in the case of Basantapur. Shops and other