ABSTRACT
From the 1930s onward, money increasingly started to rule everyday life of the Nyishangba. Had a person's social status formerly been measured by descent or religious merit acquired, by the late fifties only the amount of capital owned counted as a sure sign of influence for the generation below 45 years of age. By that time too, great changes had already taken place within the larger Nyishangba community. An increasing number of households spent the winter months in Pokhara or Bhairawa at the expense of the one-time winter abode of Shillong, but more often in Kathmandu where permanent residence throughout the year became a general characteristic of the richer families. A gradual process of monetization, which had already begun by the second half of the nineteeth century, was nearly completed in 1962. By that date, international trade ventures had become of a highly capitalized nature, while regional exchanges with the middle hills followed suit the money-dominated trend at the expense of the number of barter transactions. In the course of the process, socio-economic stratification, e.g. in terms of landownership or cattle, became more pronounced, but soon lost its home-based expression in favour of real property in Pokhara or the Kathmandu Valley.
