 |
 |
|
General
Historical Information on Nepal This was not the first time for Gyanendra to have
been crowned as the King of Nepal. He was declared king during a
political plot on November 7, 1950 when both his father King Mahendra
and his grandfather King Tribhuvan along with other royals fled
to India. In January 1951, his grandfather King Tribhuvan returned
to Nepal and resumed the throne. In April 2006, King Gyanendra was forced to give up his absolute rule following wide spread protests. He was stripped from all his political and cultural rights. On May 28, 2008, Nepal was declared a federal
democratic republic by the newly elected Constituent Assembly. The
Nepali government then sent a letter to King Gyanendra to vacate
the Narayanhiti palace within the 15-day deadline given by the Constituent
Assembly. With the new Constituent Assembly in effect, Gyanendra
and his family now assume their roles as general citizens of Nepal,
with Gyanendra being the last in the line of the Shah Dynasty. The government has decided to convert the Naranyanhiti palace into a museum. A government appointed panel has also been formed to prepare details of artifacts and other precious belongings of the palace to be displayed in the museum. Meanwhile, the Nepal's national flag in front of the palace has replaced the royal flag. Gyanendra was born on July 7, 1947. He is
the second son of late King Mahendra and his wife Indira. On May
1, 1970, Gyanendra married Komal Rajya Laxmi Shah. They have two
children; Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev and daughter Prerana Rajya Laxmi
Devi Shah.
The King, Queen and other members of the Royal family were carried to Pashupati Aryaghat, next to the Holy Bagmati River, for their last rites. Desperate to know the truth, people blocked traffic in protest and riots began in the streets of Kathmandu and even curfew had to be imposed to disperse the restless crowd which just could not believe what had happened inside the highly guarded Royal Palace. People shaved their heads as a sign of respect for their beloved King as they would have done in the demise of their family members as per Hinduism and a 5 day closure of government offices and 13 days of official mourning was announced. Just after 48 hours of the title “King”, King Dipendra died in the hospital and the younger brother of late King Birendra, Prince Gyanendra became the new King of Nepal - three Kings in 4 days. The murder of Royals inside Narayanhity Royal Palace is said to be the second worst mass killing of royalty in the world after the Romanovs, who were killed back in 1918 during the Russian civil war.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nepal
has a long glorious history. Its civilization can be traced back
to thousands of years before the birth of Christ. History reveals
dynasties of Ahirs and Gopalas, Kirants, Licchavis and Thakuris
ruling the country before the Malla period began. Modern Nepal is
an amalgamation of a number of principalities which had independent
entities in the past. Before the campaign of national integration
launched by King Prithivi Narayan Shah – the first Shah King
of Nepal, Kathmandu valley was ruled by the Malla Kings, whose contribution
to arts and culture are indeed great and the Malla era is considered
to be the golden age of Nepal. In 1768 A.D., the Shah King defeated
the Malla Kings and unified the country that was divided into small
independent Kingdoms.
The
revolution of November 1950 brought an end to autocratic Rana regime
that ruled the country for 104 years since 1846 A.D. The Ranas seized
all the power from the Shahs but revered the existence of King in
Nepal. After the fall of Ranas in February 1951, Nepal first saw
a dawn of democracy. The parliamentary government under the multi-party
system was adopted for some years which was later followed by Panchayat
System in 1960. The popular people’s movement of 1990 reinstated
the multi party democratic system and the new democratic constitution
of the Kingdom was promulgated on November 9, 1990. 
