Once a palace, now a crime scene

The World

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Thousands of Nepali waited in the monsoon heat to see inside the walls of the flamingo pink Royal Palace. Outside the palace — now called the Narayanhiti Museum — hawkers sold ice cream and cold drinks, as if the queue led to a carnival ride rather than the place where a lovesick prince allegedly massacred his father, mother and siblings only a few years ago.

“I thought it would be grand, but I didn’t find it so,” said a disappointed Debendra Lamjung. “What a simple palace. What a simple bed the king slept in. I thought it would be made of gold.”

The Narayanhiti museum is fascinating but underwhelming in this country the size of Arkansas and wedged in the Himalayan peaks between China and India. Russian crystal chandeliers paired with musty carpets and worn furniture lend a shabby-chic feel to the palace.

Photographs of dignitaries like Prince Charles, King Hussein and Nancy Reagan adorn the aquamarine walls. Some unexpected touches — the rhino heads, the skinned and splayed alligator, the portrait of deceased Nepali King Birendra fashioned from human hair — contribute to the surreal atmosphere.

For generations, Nepali schoolchildren were taught that their king was a living god, an incarnation of Hindu god Lord Vishnu, the preserver and sustainer of life. To come face to face with the mundane reality of his full set of leatherbound Agatha Christie mysteries was likely shocking for some last remaining believers.

“They probably took the nice stuff with them,” one woman whispered to her companion, giggling. “It is a bit common for a king,” said Tek, a truck driver from Pokhara. “I thought they lived a life of luxury.”

For 200 years, Nepal existed as a feudal monarchy insulated from penetration by foreign democratic trends. In 1959, the kingdom flirted briefly with democracy but political parties were never quite defined. The palace’s inept and impotent response to a Maoist insurgency allowed a ragtag group of guerrillas armed with rusty carbines to evolve over a decade into a deadly fighting force of more than 10,000 Nepali men and women.

On June 1, 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra is said to have massacred his family after his choice of bride was overruled by his mother. Some sources question whether the badly behaved Dipendra was duped into the bloodshed, but nothing has been proven. Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, the murdered king’s brother, ascended to the thrown, submitting a war-weary population to continued autocratic rule.

Like a tragic epic, the people turned on their malicious ruler and took to the streets. Months later, the king was deposed and the royal palace vacated. In a final humiliation, the Nepal Electric Authority threatened to turn off the electricity to royal homes if the royal family did not pay the delinquent bill of nearly $1 million.

The world’s last Hindu Kingdom was no more.

Rather than rise from the ashes of the monarchy, the national condition has degenerated. Reconstruction is stagnant and foreign investment virtually nonexistent as continued insecurity and political violence has scared away foreign investors. When the monarchy that unified this ethnically and linguistically diverse nation disappeared, destruction ensued. Armed militias trumpeting minority rights demanded autonomy in a “new Nepal.”

“To our parents, the king was the symbol of unity for all Nepali, but this generation has other allegiances,” said Dr. Durman Thapa, president of the Asian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Transformation in Kathmandu.

“In some ways, we are removing the lid from Pandora’s box, and there is a fear that no one will be able to put it back on,” said Vidyadhar Mallick, Nepal’s former Finance Minister. “Aspirations have been raised so high and the leadership is not able to manage expectations. There was so much talk about the peace dividend, prosperity and employment, but it hasn’t been delivered.”

As cracks appear in the democratic facade of the “new Nepal,” some Nepali are looking back to the Shah dynasty with a tinge of nostalgia. The Shah dynasty unified 60 independent hill states in Nepal, starting in 1769, and outlasted European political dynasties such as the the Bourbons, the Hapsburgs and the Romanovs. A mythic aura still clings to the deposed king, and the royal family remains an object of fascination for many Nepali. A network of supporters has coalesced, rallying under the slogan: “Save nationalism and democracy, restore monarchy.”

"I am very perturbed, troubled and anguished to observe that there has been no improvement in the condition of my beloved fellow citizens," announced King Gyanendra on his birthday. Observers say he is contemplating a dramatic return from his wealthy and comfortable home in the Kathmandu suburbs to politics. A Royalist party has circulated fliers calling for his reinstatement.

Opponents of the monarchy, like Maoist legal adviser Khimlal Devkota, do not foresee a royalist backlash.

“The monarchy is a contradiction in the 21st century,” he said in an austere office where he advises Maoist members of the Constituent Assembly, Nepal’s governing body. “How can you have a group that is above the law in the age of the rule of law? It is over. It has been abolished forever.”

The new government isn’t taking any chances. In July, the government froze the king’s personal bank account amid allegations that he had improperly transferred money out of the country during his brief reign.

During the dynasty, two battalions of elite royal guards were permanently installed within the palace walls and a considerable military presence remains. However, absent a king, it is unclear exactly what they are trying to protect.

Standing in the shade of the neglected royal gardens, not far from a camouflaged soldier, Hari — a locksmith who worked in the palace for two decades — holds court.

“Before, no one was allowed to walk around here,” he said. “At night it is empty and scary. I miss the king and queen.”

This report comes from a journalist in our Student Correspondent Corps, a GlobalPost project training the next generation of foreign correspondents while they study abroad.

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