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CLOUD OF UNCERTAINTY: King Gyanendra and Queen Komal at last year's ceremony to honour the living goddess. But political developments this year have cast doubts over the royals' attendance this year. -- PHOTO: AFP
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KATHMANDU - EVERY year, Nepal's kings visit a young girl who is believed to be the living incarnation of a powerful Hindu goddess to seek blessings for another year of rule.
But it is not clear if King Gyanendra, stripped of most of his powers, will be going this year. Many analysts believe he will instead be pondering on the fate of his 238-year-old dynasty as it hangs in the balance.
The biggest political party announced late last week it was set to back a republic in the November elections and fiercely republican former rebel Maoists have ended their decade-long people's war and entered government.
The polls to elect a body to rewrite the Constitution could be the endgame in an incredibly turbulent dynastic history.
In the 18th century, King Gyanendra's forefather, Prithvi Narayan Shah, was king of Gorkha, a small hill kingdom in central Nepal. The king had big ambitions.
One of at least 60 kingdoms between the Himalayas to the north and the southern plains bordering India, the Shah dynasty founder used political wiles and force to conquer kingdoms and create what became known as modern Nepal.
He ruled until his death in 1775 and 'Nepal was ruled for the next 70 years by kings who were either underage, inept, insane or all three', wrote Manjushree Thapa in a history of Nepal, Forget Kathmandu (An Elegy For Democracy).
Kings took numerous wives, which meant conflicts over succession, intrigue and killings.
Eventually, the Rana family took charge and declared themselves the 'hereditary prime ministers', but they were forced to end their 104-year rule in 1951.
Nepal had a nine-year flirtation with democracy that ended with a royal coup in 1960.
In 2001, tragedy struck the ruling Shah family when then-king Birendra's son, Dipendra, whose parents had stopped him from marrying the woman he loved, went on a drink- and drug-fuelled rampage and massacred nine members of the royal family, including the popular king, and then killed himself.
The 'palace massacre' vaulted the current king, Gyanendra, to the throne.
Today, however, he is powerless, living as a recluse in one of his palaces and awaiting the November elections to see whether his dynasty has any future in the impoverished nation.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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