King Gyanendra: The absolute monarch By Justin Huggler 05 February 2005 When King Gyanendra of Nepal was a boy, he was sent to school in Darjeeling in neighbouring India. A story from his time there sheds light on the character of the man who this week sacked the entire government of Nepal and seized back the absolute power of a medieval king. Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of a newly independent India, was to make an official visit to Darjeeling, and one of the stops on his itinerary was at the school. Gyanendra and the other young Nepali princes were told they would have the honour of presenting the visiting dignitary with a flower. But Gyanendra refused. "I won't do it," the precocious prince is said to have told the headmaster. "I am higher than he." The man who this week seized back absolute power in Nepal is a man who believes in royalty, who believes that from his birth he has been "higher" than other people. Most of Gyanendra's life has been devoted to preserving the mystique and power of royalty. He even played a small part in the drama of Britain's own royal family. When Prince Charles came to Nepal in the late 1970s for some space to think about whether he should marry a young blonde called Lady Diana Spencer, it was Prince Gyanendra who took the English prince under his wing, playing host and devising the "royal trek", a route below Machhapuchhre mountain where Charles walked and meditated on his decision. Gyanendra's life turned upside down on a hot night in Kathmandu in June 2001, when his brother, King Birendra, and most of the rest of the Nepali royal family were killed in the bloodiest royal massacre of modern times. What happened that night, at least according to the official version, is that the royal family had gathered for dinner, as it did every week. Crown Prince Dipendra had been drinking hard, and got into a row with his mother, who was refusing him permission to marry the woman of his choice. The drunk Dipendra was taken to his rooms, but in a fit of rage he returned armed with at least four guns, and sprayed bullets across the room, killing off almost the entire male line of the Nepali royal family. After killing the rest of the family, Dipendra turned the gun on himself. For three days he lay in a coma in a hospital bed. He was named king but never regained consciousness. After he died, his uncle, Gyanendra, was crowned. There were no cheering crowds. There were riots in Kathmandu at the news of Gyanendra's accession, and as he rode to the coronation, his carriage had to be guarded by the army. Except that it wasn't the first time Gyanendra was crowned king of Nepal. In 1950, when he was a boy of four, Gyanendra had been led to the throne to have the crown placed on his head in a hasty ceremony. And that curious episode also sheds light on what happened this week. Nepal was in turmoil. The real power was in the hands of the Ranas, a family of hereditary prime ministers who used the royal family as figureheads. Gyanendra's father, Tribhuvan, fled to India, taking with him his heir, Gyanendra's brother. Gyanendra was left behind and the Rana prime minister, Mohan Sumshere, crowned the boy as a new figurehead. Four months later, Tribhuvan returned and managed to overturn the Rana power with Indian backing. The four-year-old Gyanendra abdicated in favour of his father's restoration. Gyanendra was born into royalty, but he was born into a royal dynasty in trouble, and at the age of four he played his part in restoring its power. It was to become a common thread through his life. The dynasty Gyanendra helped to save was not just one of kings - it was a dynasty of gods. Devout Hindus in Nepal believe that their kings are incarnations of the god Vishnu. But after those tumultuous events of his boyhood, Gyanendra had to learn to play the part of the dutiful younger brother. He developed his own business interests: a hotel in Kathmandu, a tea estate in eastern Nepal, and a cigarette factory. He also became a leading conservationist.