Nepal's last King Gyanendra leaves the (former) Royal Palace

 The Narayanhity royal palace, Nepal's best-known landmark built in the 18th century by the Shah kings to commemorate their bloody victory over the Rana prime ministers, will see the final fall of the dynasty on Wednesday when Gyanendra, the last king of the 239-year-old line, makes his final departure.

Dethroned king Gyanendra and his wife Komal will leave the palace where, by a quirk of fate, they had first moved in as regent and queen on a Wednesday in July 2002, 13 months after he was crowned king following the assassination of his brother, king Birendra.

"The king will leave on  Wednesday," Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula told journalists in the capital on Tuesday. "Before his departure, he will hand over his crown, sceptre and other artifacts of historic importance to the government."

On May 28, Nepal's newly elected constituent assembly, that took the place of the interim parliament, formally proclaimed the Himalayan kingdom a republic and ordered the former royals to vacate the palace within 15 days.
Though the deadline ends on Thursday, Sitaula said: "Why wait till the final moment?"

The minister, who had met the deposed king last week to discuss his safe exit from the palace, said he had advised Gyanendra to leave the palace in a dignified manner for the benefit of both the royal family and the nation.

However, though the former king and queen would vacate the palace, members of the dynasty would continue to live there.

The former king's 80-year-old stepmother Ratna Shah has been allowed by the government to stay in her mansion in the palace, where she had moved in 1952 as the bride of the then crown prince Mahendra.

Another small house in the palace has been given to a 91-year-old woman, Sarala Tamang, who was the concubine of the king's grandfather Tribhuvan.

Sitaula said the physical planning and work ministry has been given the task of fencing in the two residences from the main palace, which would become a national museum.

Gyanendra has been allowed by the government to take up residence in a summer retreat built by the royal family on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

Text adapted from http://www.deccanherald.com/

Nepal king leaves royal palace

Nepal's besieged King Gyanendra has left the Narayanhity royal palace from where his ancestors had ruled for generations, probably his final exit as the last king of a nearly 250-year dynasty.

"The king left the palace for his summer residence Nagarjuna palace (about eight kilometres north of Kathmandu) around 9 p.m. Thursday," said Kishore Shrestha, editor of the Nepali weekly Jana Aastha.

The tabloid, a close watcher of the royal family, had said Wednesday that the king, accompanied by his wife Queen Komal, would exit the palace Thursday in a bid to avoid an "undignified tussle with the rabble".

The report led to a media siege of the palace gates, where reporters and photographers kept vigil till late Thursday in a vain bid to record what could be the last departure of the king from his palace.

But the royal entourage departed only after the media had packed up and left disappointed.

The once Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, whose kings were revered as incarnations of a Hindu god and considered above law, is rapidly moving towards a new chapter next week when an assembly elected by a historic poll last month is expected to ring the death knell of monarchy.  

On Wednesday, the 601-member constituent assembly will hold its first meeting, which, according to the Maoists who emerged as the biggest party in the poll, will transform Nepal into a republic, and ask the royal family to leave the palace.

To facilitate the radical change, the assembly members will be sworn in Tuesday.

Readying for the change, the government has started drafting an ordinance for the ceremony.

The king, who issued two statements last month, first urging his "beloved countrymen" to vote without fear in the April 10 constituent assembly election and then welcoming the results, has maintained an enigmatic silence since then.

The royal silence fed contradictory rumours.

A section of the Nepali media speculated that the strong-willed king would refuse to vacate the palace even after Wednesday and had instructed the large contingent of soldiers deployed inside the palace to defend it against "invading mobs".

Others said that the Maoists, who are trying to form the next government, had assured the king that there would be no threat to his life and property, following which he was quitting the palace well before the deadline to avoid confrontation.

Still others said that the Maoist hardliners, who had warned that the king would be forcibly evicted from the palace after Wednesday, had been bringing in cadres to surround the palace and stage a show of force.

On Friday, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood met Maoist chief Prachanda to inquire about the new government and the new head of state.

While the Maoists want an all-powerful president, the other major parties, however, are rooting for a ceremonial president with the prime minister to be the real source of power.

Once an omnipotent monarch, Nepal's kings began losing their power in 1990 when a pro-democracy uprising forced the then king Birendra to lift the ban on political parties and become a constitutional monarch who remained the decorative head of state while an elected prime minister exercised the real power.

Nepalis feel monarchy would not have come to the present pass had the king and his entire family not perished in a mysterious massacre in the palace in 2001.

Birendra's younger brother and successor Gyanendra stepped out of constitutional monarchy and began controlling the government.

In 2005, dispensing with all subterfuge, he seized power with an army-backed coup and began ruling the kingdom directly.

The 14-month authoritarian royal regime, marked by corruption and nepotism, stoked nationwide protests and forced the king to surrender power in April 2006.

The disenchanted nation then vowed to hold a first-time election to put the monarchy to vote.

The April 10 election saw 17.6 million voters choose change and welcome the Maoist guerrillas, who had fought a 10-year war trying to overthrow the royal family, while giving the thumbs-down to the king.

"As you sow, so you reap," said Shrestha. "If the king had not engineered the coup, he would not be where he is today."

Text from http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14680321