KATHMANDU: One of the most gripping tales to have captured public imagination is the legend of Tutankhamen's curse, the superstition that the mummy of Egypt's boy-king took its revenge on the violators of its tomb, causing the death of the British excavators who discovered the grave in 1923. A similar myth has now sprung up in Nepal. According to Nepal's tabloid press, a secret room in a temple in western Nepal wields similar power, and could be responsible for the massacre of Nepal's royal family in 2001 as well as the sudden death of a parliamentarian recently. More than two centuries ago, the forefather of the present monarch Gyanendra, swooped down on Kathmandu valley from the tiny kingdom of Gorkha in western Nepal and began annexing the neighbouring principalities. The old palace still stands in Gorkha, protected by the temple of Gorkhakali, the goddess of war and power. The Gorkhakali shrine has a "vayu kotha" — a secret room said to contain dangerous powers and kept locked. The late queen Aishwarya ordered the lock to be forced open and entered it in May 2001, the Jana Aastha tabloid reported. A week later, Aishwarya, while attending a dinner party with family members, was gunned down along with Birendra, three of their children, and other relatives, reportedly by her eldest son crown prince Dipendra, who also perished in the infamous midnight massacre. The scared temple authorities boarded up the room once again. Last month, a team of parliamentarians went to Gorkhakali as part of its mandate to visit Nepalese prisons and advise the government how to improve them. Team head Dilli Raj Sharma went to the temple, where the priest told him about the queen's visit. An intrigued Sharma then reportedly asked him to have the door of the secret room forced open. By evening, Sharma, who had reportedly told his peers that he was in the best of health, died due to heart attack. "A coincidence connects the queen and the legislator," the Nepalese tabloid said. source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Rest_of_World/Tomb_curse_on_Nepal_royals/articleshow/2269679.cms