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

muscle with regard to its de jure claim to the forest reserves of
Tamaphok, which had been nationalized by the government since 1957 but
were effectively left in control of the !ocal populace. Little appeared
to change except that it became more widely known that a forest ranger
was entitled to charge 2% NRs per & of cut firewood, and Ape was
prosecuted for cutting wood for the new pancfivat accommodation he was
building without authorisation from the District Forest Office. He
b!amed the Queen for the situation, suggesting that the Forest
Department was run by her, not the King. Dislike of the Queen was a
common theme, which sometimes helped to deflect opposition away from the
King and the monarchy in general.
In retrospect, it should have been possible to recognize the signs
of unrest in the pancavat through the meetings I attended, but at the
time I was still trying to sort out what was normal at such events,
Talking through other peop!els speeches, for example, appeared to be
quite normal. There did seem an air of restlessness at the 32nd
Tamaphok pgu--sabh& meeting I attended on November 16th, 1989. I
afterwards learned that this was due mainly to the non-appearance of the
r&s,Triva pancfivat representative for the area who had been expected
(and who had also faiIed to at tend another g8u--sabhfi meeting in
Mamling), The meeting was held in the open-air but seemed quickly to
disintegrate into groups talking amongst themselves, while some Thulo
mBnche (literally 'big men' ) stood aro~~nd the pradhdn DB-c's desk
taxking with him, the deputy pradhan ~a-c and the pancavat secretaryo
At one point the crowd's attention (such as it was) was diverted by a
teenage boy waving aloft a Rubik's cube and running off into the bushes
near by.