Blood Against the Snows

On 1 June 2001, Nepal's Crown Prince Dipendra left the family gathering he was hosting, re-dressed in camouflage clothing and prepared a number of guns. He then returned to the gathering and massacred his father the King, his sister, his younger brother, his mother, and a host of other royals, before turning a gun on himself, and unsuccessfully attempting to end his life.

Despite being in a coma and on a ventilator, with very low expectation of any form of recovery, in the early hours he was crowned King of Nepal, as as such, was immediately placed above the law. It was not possible to suggest, let alone accuse him of any crime, and the palace went into a media blackout. He was physically and mentally unable to rule, and Birendra's younger brother Gyanendra was named Regent.

By this time, speculation in Kathmandu however, was running wild, with news the King was dead being leaked out. There were many theories being put forward, most with no basis. There was everything from the Maoist rebels to the Indian RAW, the CIA or a military coup. Many suspected that Birendra's younger brother Gyanendra was responsible - made worse by the fact he would eventually be crowned.

It was not until Dipendra's heart stopped early on the 4th of June, that Gyanendra become the third King of Nepal in 5 days, and the constitutional constraints were removed, the silence could be broken and a formal commission of enquiry be launched. Gyanendra's crowning ended the line of eldest son's, and he was the first of the ‘cadet' or younger brother line to be crowned.

This whole episode is well covered in this book, but it is much more that this. This book explains the whole Shah Dynasty of the Nepalese Kings. Birendra was the tenth of his line - inheriting the crown from his father, as the eldest son. We start with the first King, Prithvi Narayan Shah, who united the separate principalities of Nepal, forming the unified kingdom of Nepal. From there is gets messy with Kings losing power to Prime Ministers, power struggles, ineffective leaderships and a change from absolute monarchy to hereditary prime ministers, to constitutional monarchy.

While the names become repetitive and somewhat confusing, as the Shahs marry the Ranas, Greggson does a good job of setting out each generation of King.

Published in 2003, what we miss out on in this book, is Gyanendra dismissing parliament in 2005, and returning to absolute monarchy, before Nepal was declared a Federal Democratic Republic in 2008, and the monarchy was abolished. The Shah family had reined over the unified Nepal from 1768 until 2008.

Five stars.