ABSTRACT
Trade, as it developed over the years, brought increased mobility for a majority of the Nyishangba. Nowadays, one hardly finds a grownup member of their community that has not been outside Nepal and many of them are acquainted with Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Of course, the rise of the Nyishangba as long-distance traders did not take place overnight. In effect, it took several decades for them to translate their initial gains into the relative - and for some of them - absolute wealth that is so characteristic of their Kathmandu-based community today. The whole process of increased mobility boils down to a progressive integration into the wider Southeast Asian economy, in particular with regard to its urban centres of capitalist advancement. Content and context of this process provide us with the subject matter for the present chapter.
