King Gyanendra and I

Spring 1996 : The King’s Brother comes to visit, Pisang (3,300m / 10,800ft)

“Well there I was just minding my own business, sipping tea; lost within my own thoughts when who should turn up in his royal chopper but the King of Nepal’s brother for a quick visit. All the villagers turned up in their best togs to present a white scarf around the neck and shake his hand. Here he greets the village holy man who carries a manta wheel, it contains a tightly coiled prayer parchment, on the side of the cylinder is a small ball and chain so that by flexing the wrist the cylinder is rotated and the prayers made to Buddha. After all the greetings the Prince settled down to a meal of tea with Tibetan bread & honey, then presented the village with a football, a cricket set and some sweets for the children.”

At least I think it was the King’s brother (now the king), as my Nepalese wasn’t too impressive, perhaps any passing Nepalese bloggers might like to confirm or deny it for me but remember that this was 1996. Much happier days.

Since then King Gyanendra has taken over the throne under tragic circumstances only to inherit a whole host of problems. Along with crippling rural poverty the main one being the Maoist rebels who terrorise and control much of the countryside. Unfortunately the new King has handled things rather badly and while Europeans and Americans cheer-on the march of democracy from their armchairs what is forgotten is that in amongst those pro-democracy demonstrators are Maoist extremists who have no love of democracy and see the wane of royal power as their chance to seize power for themselves. This is not a country trying to embrace democracy, this is a country on the brink of bloody civil war and the international community couldn’t care less.