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

ten or twelve years (since the opening of the road from the Tarai), but
because of its roadhead location it had rapidly become the most
important market in the lives of Tamaphok residents. Tamaphok High
School, for example, unlike most schools in Nepal which had Saturday as
their free day, had always had Monday as its day off so that staff and
pupils could attend the bazaar, To reach it from the school one had to
climb up 3,000 feet, crossing the Tinjure Danda ridge deep in the
forests at the top (Plate 26), and then along and down 1,000 feet to
reach the town of Basantapur. This took the reasonably fit of Tamaphok
three hours on average (and the anthropo!ogists four!), and so could
easily be reached and returned from in one day, a1 though many from
Tamaphok, if they did not have urgent duties to attend to at home and
could afford to do so, would often choose to stay in Basantapur
overnight and return the next day (as did the anthropologists!),
Basantapur on first acquaintance was an unprepossessing place (Plate
27). Its location at the foot of the final ascent to the Tinjure Danda
meant it was often wreathed in cloud, and the heavy precipitation and
lack of mains drainage meant that its unpaved streets were more often
than not a sea of mud and f i 1 th. The tin-roofed wooden buildings had
mostly been constructed since the road was finished, and contributed to
the makeshift atmosphere of the place. Few of the inhabitants had lived
in the area prior to the road, but had migrated in from the Tarai or
elsewhere to make the most of the new business opportunities offered by
the roadhead economy. A town of about 400 inhabitants had developed.
There were tea and raksi shops and 'hotels' (the latter offering
accommod~tion of varying standards), cloth shops, food and general
stores, shops selling cooking utensils, a watch repairers, a goldsmiths,