Why Nepal's Prince Organised A Royal Massacre | Asia's Monarchies | Real Royalty

Asia's

monarchies

defy history in a modern era of democracy. Worlds of tradition, mystery and ritual that command fascination and respect like never before. Asian monarchs are symbols of continuity. Living connections to the past that are often loved and hated in equal measure. In Nepal, the monarchy was expelled. Power after 250 years of rule was replaced by an uncomfortable, overthrown and humiliated republic. The former king can still inspire devotion among many people. The story of the shah is a tale of murder, intrigue, genius and madness, overshadowed by an ancient family curse and the final act in this blood-soaked drama was the murder of the king and queen by their son, the heir to the throne, The story of the Shahs is the story of Nepal and one that still divides the nation to this day, oh for visitors, Nepal is a stunningly beautiful mountain.

Land of temples and religious devotion where Hinduism and Buddhism have coexisted peacefully for hundreds of years. This is the most ethnically diverse country in Asia, where dozens of cultures have lived in harmony for centuries, but this harmony has never been reflected in the history of its

royal

family. Nepal's

royal

drama centers on Nepal's capital Kathmandu, the cradle of power and the focus of the country's politics, the recent overthrow of the monarchy, the question of its possible return is one that dominates public debate . monarchists and anti-monarchists compete with each other under an unstable government we have to speak slowly I have already told you that we have to work but in the streets of Kathmandu people still come in thousands to celebrate the birthday of the last king of Nepal, Janendra, I wholeheartedly support my team and he live a long life the history of

nepal

and the shah is that of a struggle for unity and harmony from the founder prithvi narayan shah to the present day the shah's rule has been characterized by ever-repeating cycles of violence Prithvi Narayan Shah was a great warrior chief who unified Nepal and founded the royal dynasty of Shahs Rajendra Shah was mentally ill and his reign saw the Shah's descent into factionalism and the first mass murder in Nepal's royal drama , tripovansha, returned the monarchy to prominence after almost a century of obscurity as mere puppet kings Mahendra Shah ventured into politics and tried to regain absolute power, returning his family to factionalism and infighting Birendra Shah attempted to modernize monarchy and usher in democracy and paid with his life, however fractured its history may be, there has always been a unifying force in Nepal its religion Hinduism Kathmandu the sprawling capital lies in the mountain basin high in the foothills of the Himalayas its many temples and statues to the gods are as relevant today as they have always been on the days of Hindu festivals the entire city stops to pray and purify and have fun in the streets this festival in Nepali is known as janai purnima this place in particular is associated with the hindu god shiva is a temple called kumbeshwar it is not only sacred to the hindus but also to the local shamans who belong to the taman community for them this is a very important festival so you see many shamans you know playing drumming and dancing.

First they take bath in the pond, here they clean themselves and go to a temple which is a nearby Shiva temple to basically pay homage to Lord Shiva. So what this does is combine local varieties of religion with Hinduism. The focus of public devotion at these festivals was usually twofold: first, it was always the kumari, a young girl revered as a living goddess; Second, it was the royal family themselves as guardians of the Hindu flame and the shahs were always careful to fuse the religious and royal devotions of their people, reinforcing the image of themselves as semi-divine beings, but what is particularly interesting is their choice of a personal family deity, Khali, a vengeful goddess who demanded blood sacrifices from her followers and the shahs were required to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

I remember receiving calls from my relatives. Have you heard? Have you heard? Have you heard? We are listening. You know, the shooting at the palace on a terrible night in 2001. Nepal made headlines all over the world. With the murder of almost the entire royal family by his heir to the throne, Crown Prince Dipendra, at a Friday night family party, a heavily armed Dipendra shot his father, King Barendra, his mother, his brother, his sister and five other members of his close family before finally shooting. For himself it was a shock, it was a shock, you know, because one could not expect that such a horrendous act could be carried out.

Worshiping demigods throughout history. The Shah's all-too-human nature had been revealed. He is not a. God, I tell you he is not a god, if he were a god, this would not happen if the shahs were not gods, then perhaps they were subject to the will of a

real

god for many in Nepal, a land where myth and legend are part. From the fabric of everyday life, the royal

massacre

is simply the fulfillment of an ancient curse imposed on the founder of the Shah dynasty Prithvi Narayan Shah. Legend has it that Shah was walking through the forest one day when he met a wise old man, in fact the revered holy gaurant in disguise obediently offered the man a bowl of curd to show his respect the old man drank it all and then he regurgitated it back into the bowl he asked the shah to drink it to show his devotion shah rejected he threw the bowl on the ground where the foul liquid covered his feet garage then cursed him saying that his dynasty will only last the number of generations that the toes ten the eleventh king would be the last throughout its history the curse has overshadowed the house of the shah but would it

real

ly come?

The true monarchy of Nepal may no longer exist, but they remain national heroes to their people here in Kathmandu. Statues in his honor dominate the streets and buildings, but the story of the shah begins more than a hundred miles from Kathmandu. Here in Golka, this was the birthplace of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the young man who would become king, it was a humble beginning for the man who would create Nepal and found its ruling dynasty during his privileged years of youth, in which he would have lived in circumstances comparatively humble and without much money. or resources to play with um and an area that was not rich in agriculture.

Gorkha alone could never satisfy this young man's ambitions. He wanted to rule a much larger kingdom, so what he is said to have done is to have walked. One day, from the edge of the Kathmandu Valley, he looked at it and said, "You know, someday all this will be mine." Kathmandu was the key to Nepal, not only was it one of the most fertile areas of the region, but it was located in the heart of an important trade route between India and Tibet that gave access to great wealth. The prize was enormous but for a young chief in a small army so were the risks the main presidential strategy developed to conquer the Caterpillar valley was to conquer the surrounding areas of the Kathmandu valley and after that he needed a place from where a direct attack on Kathmandu could be made in two or three hours and that place he selected was beautiful for 12 years.

Prithvi Narayan Shah and his army besieged Kirtipo. It took him four attempts before he finally fell, but it came at a heavy price for the young

prince

. He lost his best general, Kalu Pandey, and his own brother. The exploits of the Shah's army remain the vivid part of local and Kurtipur folklore. It is not difficult. find locals to tell the story of the gruesome At the end of Kalu Pandey, both armies paid a heavy price. Finally, Shah tried to find a solution and approached the ruler of Kirtipo to peacefully enter the city. He had some sort of agreement with the Cutipur leaders to pave the way. for him and they must have changed their mind at the last moment Kertipo closed his doors to the shah and the bloody siege continued when kirtipo finally fell the shah took revenge on his people he cut off the lips and noses of all the men in the city why cutting off noses, well you know, the traditional gokali punishment in those days for an unfaithful wife was cutting off the nose, this was the punishment for adultery and perhaps for pritivinaran, which was a symbol of the fact that they had broken an agreement, this brutal act.

It also had the effect of giving the shah a fearsome reputation in Kathmandu. His ruler, Jaya Prakashmala, simply fled when he heard that the shah and his army were marching towards his city. The Shah entered Kathmandu and made it his capital in 1769, thus laying the foundation for the privilege of the kingdom of Nepal. he is integrated into this great national figure of the creator of the nation or, as they say in Nepal, the unifier of the nation because the nationalist view says that Nepal already existed, it was lying in pieces and all he needed was the visionary. to come and assemble it in 1775, just a few years after the capture of his prize, the warrior king, the man who created unified Nepal, died immediately, his court fell into disarray, the shah had created a kingdom and established the house of the shah as rulers, but he had not established the laws of succession in

asia

in

nepal

the kings had more than one legal wife and when you look at it like that and look at the animosities that are likely to arise, you can see that there must have been big fights over the succession between the children of different legal wives and even the children of concubines this creates all these tensions and fights, but the infighting did not end there, the disputes and fights were more between the surrounding families, but they were not helped by the fact. that the monarchy itself after the privilege was occupied by people of much lesser caliber, or they were minors, they were too young to rule, so the regents ruled in their place or they had mental health problems, in a couple of cases It was in this feverish atmosphere that Rajendra came to the throne and during his reign this factionalism came to a head and came to a murderous conclusion.

Rajendra came to the throne in 1816 at the age of just three years and was completely controlled by his all-powerful Prime Minister Vinsen Tapa. The last in the line of tapas who had ruled the weak child kings who followed Pratri Narayan Shah Rajendra was kept isolated unable to even leave the palace in 1837, however, he finally flexed his muscles, forced tapa to relinquish power and assumed direct rule, unfortunately he was a less than ideal candidate to be king rajendra, looking at him through 21st century eyes I would say he had bipolar disorder, at times he was probably very very reasonable and at times he was very despondent and at times he was drugged, his excesses were mainly in his cruelty he removed the caste of people by smearing them with human feces he brought out laws and edicts and changed them the next day and this lack of judgment and control was felt in his relationships with his two queens and his children .

In particular, Rajendra's strange behavior affected his eldest son, Crown Prince Surendra Surendra should have been the automatic heir to the throne, but Rajendra favored his youngest queen, Lakshmi Devi, in 1843 Rajendra issued a decree stating that his subjects They only had to obey their youngest queen, Lakshmi Devi, about the Crown Prince Sarendra was feeling increasingly insecure, I think his son was more dangerous than him, Crown Prince Surendra, and I think that was probably partly due to his father's condition, but partly to the very insecure upbringing that his younger mother and her culture were trying to achieve. Getting rid of him in favor of his younger brother, his older son, that can make you feel very, very insecure if you feel like people are trying to kill you.

The battle between the young queen Lakshmi Devi and crown

prince

Syrendra would lead to the first of Nepal's royal

massacre

s. King Rajendra's youngest queen wanted to place her own son on the throne of Nepal against the claim of the king's youngest son, so in this regard the queen took the help of a powerful court whose name was obtained by Singh, but unfortunately the king governor. was killed suddenly and when governor singh was killed, then the queen felt like some kind of orphan, you know, now she didn't have any friend to help her put her son on the throne, the queen was isolated, she sought the help of one of the most powerful men.

In the kingdom Zhang Bahadur as a military commander he controlled a large army she asked him to force all the main courtiers to meet so that they could find the murderer of her favorite courtier Gagan Singh instead of detecting the murderer there were classes among the courtiers and almost everyone the high level courtiers were killed and only zhang bahadur and his brother survived and from there began the rana rule in the history of nepal in the chaos that followed the khat massacre zhang bahadur saw his chance to take control, he instigated a coup military and deposed the king sent Rajendra and Lakshmi Devi into exile and installed Surendra on the throne like the tapa family before him, Bahadur kept the young king under permanent house arrest and under his control became permanent prime minister, learning from the mistakes of the shahs, he established a line of succession so that his own family would inherit his position taking the hereditary titleof rana and thus began a century of rana rule with a succession of puppet kings so how would the house of the shah rise again to rule nepal? the royal family of nepal is no stranger to bloodshed and intrigue the cradle massacre in 1846 and the subsequent power struggle at court shook the shah's royal family and banished it from power for over a hundred years after decades of court politics and unstable rulers the runners a ruthless dynasty of hereditary prime ministers emerged from the shadows of Nepal's elite the shahs remained under virtual house arrest, figureheads cloistered in their palaces a symbolic monarchy brought spurious authority to the rana usurpers but In practical terms they were powerless, well people say that the shah monarchy reigned but did not rule it was the Rana who ruled the country and the kings functioned as figureheads for their government.

They maintained their dominance and power by making sure they did not fall into the same trap than the shahs. They established defined rules and succession. the frog adopted the line of succession not under the principles of primordial nature. If Prime Minister Rana dies, he was succeeded. by the youngest member of the family and in that system there was no talk of the minor prime minister. The prime ministers who succeeded the Rana were all mature, all of them were over 40 or 50 years old, which is why there was no minor prime minister. The frogs had learned from the mistakes of the monarchy, but they also learned from the vision of the founder of Nepal.

I think that in the isolation that the frogs carried out in the shah's original vision of the pure state, that is, you close your borders, you make sure that nothing bad can come. their enemies cannot infiltrate they maintain the notion of Nepal as an independent state with its own unique identity and it was this desire to preserve the sanctity of its borders that led them to look for an ally in the region if there was anything. which the runners recognized to be the strength and importance of the British empire throughout the world and particularly on their own doorstep, their huge southern neighbor of India was under the rule of Britain and the Ranas had assiduously courted the British throughout his regime.

Britain in turn saw the importance of a stable and friendly state on the northern border and gave the Rana regime its full support. It was an alliance that defined the century of Rana rule in Nepal and whose loss would mark the end of his power in 1947. A political earthquake. shook the rana regime to its foundations lord mountbatten bits farewell to the first british troops an indian god of honor rises in greeting to the men whose departure symbolizes the end of british rule almost overnight the british disappeared from india and with them the support of the frog The prime ministers of Iran lost the tutelage of the British government, which is the most important thing.

So the new Indian government was not in favor of continuing the dictatorial rule of the Ramas, but rather they wanted some kind of democratic government in Nepal. The frogs were too closely associated with them. The British, at the pleasure of newly independent India and its charismatic Prime Minister Nehru, wanted their near neighbor to be governed by someone untainted by an alliance with the British. Nehru wanted a democratic government in Nepal, but he did not want a full democratic government. In Nepal, the Rana regime should end, but the new regime should be under the leadership of the king, not under the leadership of the people's representative.

That is why Panjit Nehru played a very active role in the 1950 movement and all the negotiations in Delhi took place. Under his leadership, the Rana regime was under pressure from outside its borders, at the same time as pressure was mounting within the country for change, the Indian nationalist movement, the Indian Congress movement that had led to secured independence for India, greatly influenced a small number of upper-caste middle-class Nepalese who were receiving their education in Indian cities during the 1930s and 1940s and to some extent emulating the Indian nationalist movement formed their own political parties which then They were small but then ready to take over. part of the momentum of the Indian political struggle and apply it to its own context Nepal needed a new ruler and a new government.

All eyes turned to the Shah's tribune. He had been on the throne since 1911, but like his ancestors before him, in every part of his life. It had been controlled by successive candidates first Judah Shanshar Rana and then in 1945 Mourinho Rana was too weak to regain power on his own but the leaders of the new democratic movements were able to do so once the British left the candidates were very open to that type of opposition and the armed insurrection actually took place over a period of time in 1949-1950 and they were also able to dialogue with the king and show him that they would reinstate him as ruler if he helped them in their fight and gave them certain guarantees about the introduction of democracy and so on after being reinstated as opposition grew Prime Minister Mahan Shan Sharana tightened his control if the court wanted to leave the government Rana would have to leave Nepal the king's movements were fairly closely controlled and in 1950, with On the pretext of going on a hunting expedition with his entourage and most of his family, King Drew Evan left his palace, but instead of taking the route he was expected to take, he suddenly swerved off the road toward The Indian embassy where he sought some form of political asylum was flown out of the country to New Delhi.

The entire royal family was in exile except Gyanendra, the king's three-year-old grandson, in a last attempt to save the Rana regime. The prime minister crowned him king in the hope of ruling another puppet monarch, but to no avail, the people of Nepal looked upon the absent king as if their tribune's savior's flight to India could have been seen as a mere wish. To save his own life, he cleverly managed to appear a movement to save his people and in 1951 the tribal king returned to Kathmandu. A national hero court is important for its symbolism. There was a king who was willing to sacrifice his throne for the good of the people and for the good of democracy.

The symbol of the king 31 leaves his palace and takes refuge in the embassy and, finally, Delhi symbolizes a king willing to leave his throne for the good of the people. So what does that symbolism do? It brings together the leaders of the town and the monarch, both were involved. the overthrow of the Ranas so that gesture of three one was fundamental to restore the monarchy in Nepal having recovered his throne the tribune honored his agreement with the leaders of the democratic movement and opened the doors to change he was recognized as the father of democracy in nepal by one and all, even today, they have not attacked the republican forces, they have not attacked that symbolism that leads after centuries of absolute rule, first by the shah and then by the rana, the transition to a Incipient democracy was bound to be difficult, the democracy that began in 1950 was very unstable, there was intense political instability and this went on and on until 1955, when he died and his son, King Mahindra Mahendra, came to the throne in 1955.

At that time At the time, Nepal's young democratic system was in turmoil and there was deep unrest among the people. He saw this as an opportunity to impose his authority on the nation and lead his country into a new era. He was a very ambitious person. He grew up in a very traditional environment. He received no formal education. western education he received all his education within the palace premises but was a very traditional hindu monarch saw his role as protector of the kingdom as a benefactor mahendra moved to regain some of the king's traditional powers and at the same time open the door to influences Most modern basically, when he took over the responsibility of government, he tried to become a very benevolent type of ruler, a benevolent dictator, so to speak, it is to his credit that the modernization process started in Nepal, he enacted certain laws that led to reform agrarian, he put a limit on large estates, he also enacted certain legislatures that prohibited the caste system, so he tried to put an end to what he considered some of the most backward practices and, in doing so, he attempted to modernize the country. walking a political tightrope and trying to be both a forward-thinking modernizer and a benevolent dictator, and it was this contradiction that he brought to the throne of Nepal that would lead to the final fall of the house of the Shah in a single night of unimaginable horror Nepal's diverse cultures, languages ​​and ethnic groups present a rich tapestry to the outside world, but a major problem for its political rulers.

Mahendra struggled with the dual role of benevolent dictator and modernizer. He saw that his responsibility as king of Nepal was to provide strong leadership and stability. For the country he was a nationalist to the core and believed that the political parties were not in a position to lead the country towards stability or towards modernization or towards progress and although he believed this he allowed the parties to continue for another five years. . years in which in 1960 he declared that it was no longer possible to govern the country with parties and declared a system without parties. Mahendra introduced the panchayat system of government in which he was the sole supervisor of a network of local administration centers headed perhaps by local leaders.

He truly believed that he was the only one who could safely lead Nepal into the modern era, but the democratic movement was not to be silenced. Protesters took to the streets of Kathmandu. Riots and strikes became increasingly common in 1972, in the midst of this turmoil Mahendra died leaving his son Birendra to deal with this crisis the new king Berendra had actually received a poisoned chalice when he came to the throne his ascension was seen Overshadowed by crises both ancient and modern, his family, according to legend, had been ruined by a curse that said the Shah's house would only rule for ten generations before being overthrown from its throne.

Birendra was the tenth generation of the Shah king. He also inherited a country in crisis with protesters taking to the streets to demand change along with a growing threat from Maoist revolutionaries. In 1979 when they clashed following student riots in the streets of Kathmandu, he declared that there would be a national referendum on the country's political system. country, the country would be asked if it wanted to continue with what was then called the panchayat system, if the country wanted to move from that system to a more inclusive multi-party style of democracy and the country was asked this question, so people said: Well, virendra, you know he's given us the option, I think he's earned some credit for being willing to at least open it up to national discussion, the referendum duly. took place and the people voted narrowly to maintain the panchayat system.

Despite this, the sentiment of change continued until the early 1990s once again erupted into the streets, this time with deadly consequences, seeing its citizens being gunned down, forcing Berendra to take the hand and finally agreeing. take a step. He ceased to be an absolute ruler and became a constitutional monarch. This dramatic move may have brought peace to the country, but it caused enormous division within the royal family itself. It is generally said that King Birendra was alone in the royal family for his democratic ideas and it is generally said that his stepmother, Queen Ratna, the wife of King Mahendra, was very eager to continue the system established by her husband. , king mahendra.

Similarly, queen aishwarya, birendra's wife, was also very eager to wield power like queen, her brother galindra. She too was not in favor of handing power over to the people once again, a shah king found himself surrounded by competing factions, it doesn't seem to have been a very healthy family, does it? When one looks at the events of the last 10 years or so it is difficult to speculate on the relationships within the family, but one feeling is that this is not a very cohesive little unit, there was always the feeling that within the palace there was a faction that he was always going to try to undermine any type of relationship. democratization movement despite the opposition of his family Berendra handed over power to an elected government but Nepal's problems did not end there his new government was ruined by internal fighting and ineffectiveness opening the door to a new movement for change communists after 1990 the failure of the elected government to maintain or say govern the country in a more satisfactory manner led to the rise of the maoists within the communist party but then adopted violent affairs in most of the country in 1996 the maoists announced war popular and launched a campaign of attacks that would cost the lives of fourteen thousand people in the palace the royal family was divided over how to respond to the insurgency some pushed for a hardline military option but increasingly isolated Berendra preferred a softer approach an of the characteristics to take into account I think what is insignificant is the fact that theRoyal Nepalese army was not deployed against the Maoist insurgency until the Maoist insurgency took great control over a large part of the country and it is said that this was because Biarendra was unwilling. using the army in that way because they didn't want their army, their Nepalese army, to shoot Nepalese citizens, but a sort of darker reading of that is that the monarchy actually wanted the Maoist insurgency to grow and get out of control because they saw that as a way to get rid of political parties and undermine democracy, something they never much liked in the first place, the house of the shah has never been far from rumors and intrigue, its history is riddled with conspiracy theories, tales of behind-the-scenes deals. and power brokering, but now the divisions within the royal family were literally to tear them apart.

I was at the Moscow airport when I heard about the massacre and when I first heard about it I said, "You can't believe it. I remember getting calls from my relatives." that you have heard you have heard you have heard we are listening you know the shots and the palace it was a shock it was a shock you know why one could not expect that such a horrendous act could be inactive the phone rang and it was a Nepali friend who said oh my God, it's terrible I can't believe it and I said something and he said the whole royal family was murdered on June 1, 2001, the royal family got together like they used to do on Fridays for a family evening.

Crown Prince Dipendra left the living room where his family was chatting and went to his apartment, there he armed himself with an M16 rifle and an MP5K submachine gun and returned. He went to the living room and began to shoot. He killed half of his family in that room. His mother and his brother escaped to the palace grounds. Depends, he chased them and shot them dead. He finally he turned his gun on himself at some point, even now, sometimes I wake up and say. was that you know, it was real, I particularly felt that the then crown prince was a very intelligent man, how could the intelligent man commit such a horrendous act?

That's what still hits me sometimes, no one knows for sure why Dipendra killed his family and as always in the royal history of Nepal, conspiracy theories abound, some say that Dipendra wanted to depose his father and install himself as king , returning the monarchy to absolute rule, others say he was manipulated into murder by his uncle, the king's younger brother, who wanted to be king. However, others say that he was simply angry because his parents did not allow him to marry the woman he loved ridhiani rana a member of the infamous rana dynasty old enemies of the shahs never in the history of our mythology in hindu mythology do you know it is common for kings to kill other kings, but the sun killed the father, the fat recitation and the regicide that took place and the matricide that is unusual and unprecedented in the history of no one, not even any Greek or Hindu mythology surpasses this, so It was an absolute.

Shock, the Shah dynasty has been steeped in mythology since its inception with the story of the curse placed on its founder Prithvi Narayan Shah and it seemed as if the curse had come true. Pirendra, the tenth generation of Shah kings was dead and the eleventh king was supposed to be the arbiter of the final fall of the shah's house on June 4, 2001, Miranda's brother Yanindra was crowned king, he was going To be his second coronation, he had been crowned at the age of three during the tripovan king's exile. in India and almost 50 years later he ascended the throne again.

His second government was as unfavorable as the first. He always had political ambitions, so when this came up, on the one hand he saw this as an opportunity, but we also have to understand it as an opportunity. As an individual and as a family member, he had lost everything around him and that definitely had a devastating effect on him, unloved, unwanted and facing a Maoist revolution, it was the worst possible circumstance for the old man. businessman to start a new career, however, he had plans to leave his mark king ghanindra had conservative ideas, he was of the opinion that the king should exercise his royal power, but when he became king, his activities showed that he did want to exercise the king's power in the fullest sense of torment.

Hopes that Ganendra might follow his brother's liberal and discreet policies were soon dashed. He tried to suppress both the Maoists and political parties at the same time in 2005, just as his father Mahindra had done in 1960. Gyanendra sacked parliament and took control. When the absolute monarch's press freedom was restricted and political activists were locked up, Ganendra thought he was restoring peace and stability, but it looked like a dictatorship and would be the final nail in the coffin of the Shah monarchy he is trying to impose on these two political forces. I believe that his only personal role in the country ultimately led to the fall of the monarchy in the country.

People were outraged by Yanindra's actions and once again violence hit the streets in Nepal. Yanendra realized that he had gone too far and on April 24, 2006 he restored parliament, but this would not save him and three weeks later parliament stripped him of his powers in 2007, the monarchy was finally removed. Canada per se had a great opportunity to perhaps be the most successful ruler in Nepal's history if it had pursued a reform agenda, but instead it became so involved in the political game that, in a way, it led to the fall of the monarchy. Despite the overthrow of the monarchy, there are many in Nepal who still love the shahs and call for their return, but if the curse on Prithvi Narayan Shah is to be believed, this is the final act of this particular royal drama.

Ganendra was in fact the eleventh king of Nepal, the one who would preside over a catastrophic fall from power, as bloody and dramatic as the legendary curse promised may just be a legend, but throughout its history there appears to have been a shadow over the house. of the Shah, born in war, the Shah lived out their destiny in an ever-changing landscape of bloody feuds and political intrigue before they died. in confusion and horror perhaps it is simply a case of being cursed to live in a repeating cycle of history, the story of the shah should end here, but perhaps the cycle has one more revolution to turn, the shars have already returned triumphantly from obscurity when Tripevan took on Prime Minister Rana in 1950.

Is it possible that the Shahs will rise once again to claim their place as kings of Nepal?