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

the landscape. Kamala, his daughter, was the only female Yakha teacher
in the school, having been away to study at Dhankuta campus. The
pradhgn pa-c himself had not had the benefit of education until he
joined the British Gurkhas, and obviously felt his lack keenly. Hence
his strong admonishment of a grand-nephew (whose father, once in the
Indian army, was now dead) one Dasai- because he had announced he was
going to try for the British Gurkhas without taking his School Leaver's
Certificate (SLC) exams. As we saw in Chapter Five, the pradhBn pa-c
also allowed his shed (pB1T) to be used as a hostel for female Yakha
students, a group he saw as particularly in need of support,
The teachers themselves (Yakha included) were also influential in
persuading parents to send their children, particularly girls, to
school. Ministry of Education posters in the staff room reflected this
concern, as well as rhetorically arguing for edl~cation as a source of
modern ideas. Statements on the posters included the following:
"Didi b6hini mililuli a ~hi baDhnu paryo
ruDhi b6Dhi calan lati aba ph6lnu paryo"
("Sisters sticking together should have flourished before
Such taboos must now be thrown away")
"Chori !BT skol paThBau-
ShikshBlBi .ia~ai dekhi uTh6au-"
("Let us send daughters to school
Let us raise them up from their base through education")
"EuTB hat chor6 bhae arko hat chori
yinmB katri phsrak chaina dubai bar6bari"
("If a son is one hand, the other is a daughter
There's no big difference in this, both are equa!")