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

Tamaphok, although he himself admitted that the actual number of radios
could be double this. Seventeen of these licenses were in the
predominantly Yakha ward 5, and twelve were in ward 6, a
disproportionately large number compared to the pancayat as a whole,
perhaps reflecting the particularly high level of migration there
appeared to have been by Tamaphok Yakha, A valued symbol of successful
migration was a radio from abroad with its own cassette deck (s), Less
frequently, personal stereos were to be seen (Plate 30).
Radios provided sometimes instantaneous coverage of national and
international events. For example, the Finance Minister's budget speech
on July 13th 1990 was relayed live to the village, leaving the teachers
disgruntled about the size and nature of their pay increase, Other news
items came in the news bulletins of R~dio Nepal in Nepali and (twice a
day) English. Much of the news, and almost inevitably the first item,
concerned the doings of the king, however insignificant these might have
appeared compared to international events such as the invasion of
Kuwait, the release of Nelson Mandela or the earthquake in northern
California. For example, on October 18th 1989 over three-quarters of
the news was taken up with reciting verbatim a speech the king had made
at a banquet in his honour held during a state visit to Denmark. While
the oft-repeated folk music signature tune of Radio Nepal indicated the
channel most commonly listened to, Radio Nepal was not the only station
which broadcast to a Nepalese audience, One day at the tea shop I found
the proprietor listening to the Nepali news broadcast by All India
Radio. He also sometimes listened to Nepali broadcasts from China,
Russia and the British World Service, he told me.
Another media source were intermittently arriving newspapers. These