Crowds celebrate Nepal former king’s birthday in show of support

KATHMANDU – Hundreds of well-wishers lined up outside the home of Nepal’s deposed king to celebrate his 78th birthday on July 7, the latest pro-monarchy show of support in the Himalayan republic.

Mr Gyanendra Shah, the last king of Nepal, was deposed in 2008 at the end of a decade-long civil war.

“I am thankful to everyone who came,” he said in a brief address to the crowd, dressed in a brown suit jacket and sporting a traditional Nepali cloth hat.

In the past year, public support for the restoration of the monarchy has grown – in tandem with dissatisfaction over political instability, corruption and slow economic development in the country of 30 million people.

Waving flags and carrying banners, supporters lined the streets near Mr Shah’s residence, some honking traditional trumpets and thumping drums.

Nepal’s royal palace in the capital Kathmandu is now a museum, and his home is a sprawling estate fortified with high walls.

“I wish him a long life, and hope to see monarchy return soon,” Ms Prajuna Shrestha, a 33-year-old businesswoman, told AFP.

Mr Shah accepted flowers and traditional offerings as his grandchildren stood behind him.

Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, 73, began his fourth term in 2024 after his Communist Party forged a coalition government with the centre-left Nepali Congress in the often-volatile Parliament.

“We need a king because it was the monarchy that first unified Nepal,” Ms Shrestha said. “If we look at the current situation, politics has deteriorated, and the politicians have ruined our country.”

Mr Shah was crowned in 2001 after his elder brother Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and his family were killed in a palace massacre.

His coronation took place as a Maoist insurgency was raging in far-flung corners of Nepal.

Mr Shah suspended the Constitution and dissolved Parliament in 2005, triggering a democratic uprising in which the Maoists sided with Nepal’s political establishment to orchestrate huge street protests.

That eventually precipitated the end of the conflict, with Parliament voting in 2008 to abolish Nepal’s 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

Abdicated king Shah had largely refrained from commenting on Nepal’s fractious politics, but has recently made several public appearances with supporters.

According to the World Bank, Nepal is currently facing multiple challenges, with more than 80 per cent of the workforce in informal employment.

The bank also notes, however, that real gross domestic product grew by 4.9 per cent in the first half of the 2025 financial year – up from 4.3 per cent in the same period a year earlier – primarily due to a “pickup in agricultural and industrial sectors”.

Headline inflation over the same period also eased to 5 per cent, down from 6.5 per cent the year before. AFP