King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, who was shot to death on Friday in a massacre of Nepal's royal family, was a proud but isolated monarch whose reign began in absolutism and ended in uneasy partnership with democracy. But it was a uniquely Nepalese democracy, with a fractious political spectrum from extreme left to right, further muddied by age-old palace intrigue and violence in a royal family, the Shah dynasty, descended from Rajput warriors of India that had been in and out of power since the 1770's, when it employed the indomitable Gurkha fighters to conquer large areas of the country and establish the capital in Katmandu.
King Birendra, 55, had survived a fierce wave of street revolts in 1990 only by the force of tradition; the Nepalese considered him a reincarnation of Vishnu, and there was never a mass movement to depose him. But he was later sidelined into the role of constitutional monarch.
Nepal was first opened to the world four decades ago under King Tribhuvan and later King Mahendra, Birendra's father, and it became the Himalayan region's most popular tourist attraction and the major earner of foreign currency under King Birendra. Mountain-climbing in the regions around Everest and Annapurna made the country famous. Tourism, however, led to the mushrooming of Katmandu, a city with scant public services that soon became inundated with backpackers and hippies, drawing criticism of uncontrolled tourist growth. The reliance on tourism, nurtured by Nepal's kings, has not been tempered by the current political leadership. Nepal, the world's only Hindu kingdom, was never colonized by the West but has been acutely aware of its vulnerability as a landlocked nation wedged between India and China, the world's most populous countries.
King Birendra was born on Dec. 28, 1945, and acceded to the throne in January 1972, after the death of King Mahendra. Birendra's grandfather, King Tribhuvan, had been restored to the throne with the help of India in 1951 after a century of rule by a hereditary clan of political dictators, the Ranas. Tribhuvan died in 1955. Birendra inherited from his father a system of partyless rule through rubber-stamp local and regional councils known as panchayats. The system afforded only the barest facade of democracy and was a constant irritant to the people of Nepal, who saw in it not only unbridled royal privilege but also the source of corruption and the abuse of political power by royal favorites who had no interest in the development of this mountainous country, still one of the poorest in the world. The king's attempts to cling to this system -- and his arrests of prominent leaders of the Congress Party, the leading political organization -- led him into direct confrontation with the Nepalese electorate by the late 1980's. The panchayat system was finally abolished by law in 1993. King Birenda was a man of medium height who wore glasses and invariably dressed in public in the Nepalese national costume: a tunic over tight, jodphur-style trousers, a Western-style jacket and the coloful asymetrical cap called a topi. As a young man, he enjoyed the outdoors and hiked the length and breadth of Nepal to get to know it. Although he was a Hindu king, he made a point of attending major festivals and visiting the holy sites of the country's large Buddhist minority. He continued the practice of softening lines between the two religions, and this made him popular across sectarian lines. Politically, the king had gained stature and approval in his final years because he did not call in the military to stop the democracy movement or take charge when the political coalitions that have marked the last decade cracked and sometimes crumbled, leaving a dangerous vacuum. He was the first king of Nepal to be educated abroad. He was sent first to St. Joseph's School in Darjeeling, in India's hill country. He then finished his secondary education at Eton, the elite British school, before attending Tokyo University and later Harvard, where he took courses in economics and government and studied American politics. A traveler in his youth, he visited Canada, Latin America and Africa, as well as many Asian countries. He became an art collector and supported Nepalese crafts people and artists. He could fly helicopters and enjoyed horseback riding. Many Nepalese critical of the royal family have focused their ire on Queen Aiswarya Rajya Laxni Devi Rana, whom he married in 1970. She was also killed on Friday.
The royal family lived a relatively reclusive life, especially in recent years, in a huge, ominous-looking palace that looms over central Katmandu, the capital. They had two sons, Crown Prince Dipendra, who is accused of the killings, and Prince Nirajan, who was reported to have died today of his wounds, as well as a daughter, Princess Shruti, who was killed. Shruti's two children survive, along with Birendra's brother Gyanendra, who was away from Katmandu.
Source: New York Times
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