Dodhare jyu, I agree with you. "faleko faal ko hanga najhukeko kaha cha ra?" Anil jyu, In Asia, we believe in hierarchy. The society is based on hirearchical order. One is ALWYAS subordinate to elders and or authority figures. This is evident in the Hindu, Shinto and Confucian societies of Nepal/India, Japan and China/Singapore respectively. This is why comparing the east with the west is not a good idea. The majority believes in "social order" which can be only achieved by respecting the elders and the monarch/president/govt. Culture/tradition plays a major role in shaping a country's political system and the population's political behavior. If culture was not a factor then why the hell would they offer Area Studies classes in the western academia? Why would we study how culture shapes people's political and social behaviors? Certain human behaviors, which you tend to see as resulting due to "manipulation" , I see it resulting from the "culture". In Nepali society, bowing down to your elders is seen as showing one's respect. The people of my father's generation even today bow down to their teachers on Guru Purnima. My grandfather even considered his teachers to be gods! - Gurur Brahma Gurur Bishnu Guru Devo Maheswora Guru Saxyat Parabrahma tasmai Shri Gurawe Nama: Now regarding the royal family: Ask this to any Nepali hindu 60 + old who follows the tradition and who is not yet fully westernzed. If he does his puja-paath every morning and does his ama-ba ko Sharaddha every year, he has to offer PINDA to the late Kings too! You see, the tradition or religion, whatever it is, has made the institution of monarchy inseperable from people's daily lives. You see people respecting the institution everywhere, all the time, whether consiously or unconsiously. Even the high ranking Nepali Shakya/bajracharya Buddhist priests bow to the King during the Shamyak Puja/Shamyak Mahadaan, every 12 years, thinking of his as the incarnation of one of the Buddhas. Of course, a revolution to free the society from all such influences sounds lovely, but no revolution, nothing can change the culture/tradition, as the Chinese people painfully realzied after 10 years of trying to do so. Culture/Tradition revives itslef in the long run, even in the short run people due to coersion and political correctness might submit to the new system/new culture. The revival of religion(s) including the Confucianism in China is one example of this. You don't see this in the west/US, but in Nepal, for many people, bowing down to their teachers, elders and authrity figures is not uncommon or unnatural. Its a collective cultural trait, and any anthropologist will tell you, criticizining the majority's PEACEFUL behavior of people of given society as being feudal/manipulated/primitive is not only not RIGHT, its outright nonsensical. People do what they do based on how they were brought up, or how detached or attached they were from the external influences, and their way of doing things might not be what you expect them to be doing, but what can you do? You just have to accept the fact that people in different societies tend to do things differently, and that's how the world works. Neither I nor you can get into Shiva's head to know what he was thinking when he did that, but we can make guesses as to what propelled him to do what he did. Maybe he saw in the queen his mother's image, and bowed down sincerely to show his respect. Maybe Shiva respects the queen, so he didn't want to let go an excellent oppurtunity to display his respect to the world. Also respecting women who are elders is a nepali hindu trait. He showed his respect to a Nepali female who is his elder publicly.. we can look at it from this light too, hoina?