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

plans of the Congress party for the future attended a rally there.
The weekly bazaar at Basantapur, then, was more than simply a
trading or social event. It was an event linking the known and the
unknown, the local environment and other environments, for both men and
women. This role had developed largely because of the road access of
Basantapur town to the outside world. Sansare Mude bazaar, by contrast,
was smaller, more ' local' and less popular. Neither of these bazaars
had a particularly long history, and it was interesting to speculate
whether their fortunes were likely to change in the future. As we shall
see in the next chapter, an ex t ens ion of the road was planned to enable
the development of a hydro-electric project far up the Arun valley,
This road was due to go via Sansare Mude on its way north. It remained
to be seen whether people from Tamaphok would still continue going to
the weekly Basantapur bazaar, or whether the atewa way' complex would
shift to a nearer location. It seemed likely that the influence of
Sansare Mude bazaar would increase. Already there was a lot of
speculative building going on around the settlement as people with
land there took advantage of what they perceived as a boom to come.
There were also plans to establish a private boarding school there,
This was discussed by the sub-minister for industry (a Gurung from Madi
Mulkharka, who as we shall see was also influential in the migration
business from Tamaphok) on a visit in October 1990. Certainly a road
would be a precondition for a school of this type to be successful.