He has the dubious honor of being the last dethroned monarch in the world. Gyanendra Shah (73 years old) lost the crown of Nepal in 2008, you could say that because of his bad head. He became king of the Himalayan nation unexpectedly and never enjoyed the popularity that his predecessors had enjoyed throughout the 239 years that the Shah dynasty ruled the mystical country.
Gyanendra was crowned in 2001 after the Palace massacre in which almost the entire Nepalese royal family was killed. A massacre in the purest Shakespearean style by the then crown prince. Dipendra , driven mad by the opposition of his parents, the kings Birendra and Aishwarya , to marry the young woman with whom he had fallen in love -because she belonged to the Rana clan, not much for the Shah-, was shot and killed. he killed almost a dozen members of the royal family before shooting himself. The prince spent four days in a coma before dying during which, what a paradox, he was king of Nepal, since his father had passed away.
Then his uncle Gyanendra, brother of King Birendra, ascended to the throne. If this one was immensely loved, the new monarch always aroused misgivings . Especially when rumors began to circulate that it could have had something to do with the actual massacre, something that was never proven.
It seemed to Gyanendra that her brother had been too soft and did not much like his exquisite constitutional forms. It must be said that Nepal had been immersed in the Maoist guerrilla war for some years and that the authorities were unable to stop the rebel advance. Neither short nor lazy, Gyanendra, just donning the famous crown that stands out for the plume of bird of paradise feathers and 2,700 diamonds and a fat ruby encrusted, he abolished the democratic regime and assumed all powers. The protests and popular discontent became unbearable and the king, a year and a half later, had to allow the convening of elections and return power to the people.
But he had already dug his own grave. How to continue trusting him. Gyanendra continued to reign until 2008 amid strong upheaval and ravages in the nation caused by the Maoist war, which left some 13,000 dead.
After the peace process that ended the armed conflict and the victory at the polls of an anti-monarchical front in 2007, a Constituent Assembly declared the Republic. Gyanendra and his men left the Royal Palace in Kathmandu on June 11, 2008 without offering resistance.
But the monarchy is still highly regarded in Nepal. In fact, our dethroned king resides in one of the royal family’s former summer residences , a palace surrounded by hills on the outskirts of Kathmandu. And Gyanendra is very present in the public life of the country, which generates all kinds of misgivings to the political leaders of the formations in the Government. We must not lose sight of the fact that Nepal, now a secular federal republic, is one of the poorest countries in Asia and the situation has not improved since the monarch’s overthrow, which has caused a strong disenchantment with the current system among many citizens. And the demands of some important sectors to restore the throne are increasingly sounding louder.Many Nepalese claim that their country recovers its ancestral identity, in which monarchy and religion are fundamental. Gyanendra was, don’t forget, the last Hindu king on the planet, and is revered by many followers as a living incarnation of the god Vishnu. In fact, the monarch has not stopped presiding since his retirement over a myriad of fundamental religious ceremonies for Hindu believers.
