NEPALI KING MAKES A BREAK WITH TRADITION

Nepal king makes a break with tradition

IANS
Monday, September 8, 2003
 
Kathmandu - In a significant departure from tradition,
King Gyanendra of Nepal will not attend a festival on
Tuesday that is traditionally graced by the royal family.

The Indra Jatra Festival, which began on Saturday with
the erection of a traditional wood pole at the
Hanumandhoka royal palace here, climaxes on Tuesday at
the palace square where the king makes a public
appearance before the people as well as the diplomatic
corps.

It is considered an important date in the calendar of the
reigning Shah dynasty. It was on this day in the 18th
century that the founder of the dynasty, King Prithvi
Narayan Shah, annexed Kathmandu as a step towards the
unification of different principalities of Nepal.

In modern times, the kings of Nepal have not been known
to miss the festival, which is celebrated with vedic and
tantric rites as well as a chariot procession carrying
Kumari, the "living virgin goddess", the only human being
in Nepal before whom the king bends his head.

The festival is so important that even the opposition
parties of Nepal agreed to suspend their campaign here on
Tuesday out of deference to it.

But at Tuesday's festival, King Gyanendra will be
represented by Crown Prince Paras, who is officiating for
his father.

The king returns home on Wednesday along with Queen Komal
after a routine medical check-up in London.

Since the check-up concluded last week, the king could
have arrived earlier to attend such an important
festival.

There are conjectures that he stayed on to further secret
talks with Maoist guerrillas, who have reportedly sent at
least one top leader to London.

It is also being speculated that the king is not
attending this year's festival because he has been
advised to do so by his astrologers.

The royal dynasty puts a lot of faith in astrologers. The
king, though he ascended the throne in 2001, has not yet
been officially crowned king of Nepal because of lack of
an auspicious date so far.
 
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