The economic situation in Taplejung is difficult. Around one thousand young people leave the district every year, and many leave Nepal altogether. Most return after two or three years, but they rarely remain for long. They cannot earn enough here, so they leave again and send money home.
It is mainly boys and young men who migrate in this way. Girls generally remain in the district, or at least within Nepal. This changes families and communities much more directly than the small number of tourists passing through.
Young people do not leave because they have stopped caring about Taplejung; they leave because affection for home cannot replace an income.
At the time of our conversation, the Maoists created the greatest feeling of insecurity. It was difficult to know who was involved and what they might object to. Less than two weeks earlier, they entered my house while friends and I were playing a Tibetan game. They disapproved and took it away.
They had already prohibited beer, wine and thomba, our local drink, and were even considering a ban on Coca-Cola. Their pressure was directed mainly at poorer local people who could be influenced most easily, rather than at tourists.
Tourism has had little effect on our social and cultural life. We learn something about other societies from the visitors we meet, and this can be interesting, but trekkers do not stay long enough to transform the way we live.
The ideas young people bring back after years abroad change our society far more than the impressions left by a tourist walking through.
Migration exposes young men to different economies, habits and expectations. When they return, even temporarily, those experiences influence families and local attitudes. Tourism is only one small window onto the world; labour migration is a much larger doorway.
I hope tourism can eventually create enough work for more young people to remain here. At present, however, it is too small and disconnected to compete with the opportunities they seek elsewhere.
For now, Taplejung is shaped less by the visitors who arrive than by the young people who must repeatedly leave in order to support the families waiting at home.