The economic situation is not good in the district — that's why around a thousand young people leave Taplejung every year, and often Nepal altogether. Almost all of them come back after two or three years, but rarely for long. They can't earn good money here, so they go again, sending money home to their families. It's only the boys who leave this way; girls stay in the district, or at least in the country.
They do not bother tourists though; they mostly go for the lowest class local people, because they are influenced most easily.
The biggest problem here isn't tourism, it's the Maoists. They make us feel unsafe — you never know who is one and who isn't. Less than two weeks ago they came into my house while my friends and I were playing a Tibetan game. They didn't agree with it and took the game away. They've already forbidden beer, wine and thomba, our local brew, and now they even want to ban Coca-Cola.
Our social and cultural life is largely free of tourism's influence. We do learn about other cultures from the tourists who pass through, but it doesn't really change who we are. The biggest changes come from what young people experience when they go abroad themselves — that reshapes how we think far more than a passing trekker ever could.
Tourism, for now, is a small presence in a district shaped by bigger forces.