The Great History Of Nepal

The written history of what is now Nepal can be traced in the texts of ancient Indian classics to about 2,500 years ago. Dynasties of kings—from Hindu families of Indo-Aryan descent—began ruling parts of the area in the 4th or 5th century AD. The Malla Dynasty became powerful in the 10th century and ruled until 1769,
when it was defeated by Prithvi Narayan Shah, ruler of the Gorkha (also spelled Gurkha) kingdom. He laid the foundation of modern Nepal by integrating a number of small, previously independent kingdoms. The Shah rulers established a centralized political system. In 1846, however, they lost control of the kingdom to the Rana family of nobles, which ruled through a line of hereditary prime ministers.

The Great King Birendra

In 1950–51 a revolution restored the sovereignty of the Shah kings under King Tribhuvan Shah. A constitution was approved in 1959 and general elections held for a parliament, but in 1960 King Mahendra Shah restored an absolute monarchy. He was succeeded by his son Birendra Shah in 1972.
King Birendra in 1980 approved a modified version of parliamentary government that provided for direct elections to the National Assembly. In April 1990, after months of nationwide strikes and protests calling for democratic reform, he lifted a 30-year ban on political activity. He also approved Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, the leader of the Nepali Congress party, as prime minister of an interim government. In November of that year Birendra signed a new constitution that limited his power to that of a constitutional monarch and that gave the citizenry much wider freedoms. The new multiparty political system included a parliament with two legislative houses: the National Assembly and the House of Representatives. While the members of the National Assembly were selected by the king and others within the government, members of the House of Representatives were elected by the citizens of Nepal. The king remained chief of state, but a prime minister was head of government.
Parliamentary elections in April 1991 gave the Nepali Congress party control of the government, and Girija Prasad Koirala became prime minister. Elections in 1994 were won by Man Mohan Adhikari and the United Communist party of Nepal. Adhikari's government fell after a vote of no confidence in September 1995, and he was succeeded by Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba. Between 1996 and 1998 several governments composed of alliances between various political parties rose and fell before the Nepali Congress party regained power in late 1998. During the 1990s King Birendra remained the one constant amid the country's often changing governments.
On June 1, 2001, Nepal was shocked by the news that the king's oldest son, Crown Prince Dipendra Shah, had murdered his parents, Birendra and Aiswarya, and several other members of the royal family before shooting himself. The prince's murderous spree was reportedly triggered by his parents' refusal to let him marry the woman he loved. Birendra's brother, Gyanendra Shah, was crowned Nepal's new king.

Meanwhile, Maoist rebels, appalled at the economic and social status of the rural poor, had begun fighting a bloody insurgency in the mid-1990s. They wanted to overthrow the king and create a Communist republic. Initially active only in isolated parts of the western hill region, the Maoists quickly grew in numbers and took control of large parts of the country. More than 13,000 people ultimately died in the conflict, and many more were displaced. Both the rebels and Nepal's army are thought to have committed wide-scale human-rights abuses against civilians.

This beautiful picture is taken from cable car on the
way to manakamana above the mountains

With UN mediation, the government of Nepal and the Maoist insurgency signed a peace accord at the end of 2006 that provided for temporary representation of the Maoists in the Council of Ministers (cabinet) and required both the Maoists and the Nepalese army to lock equal amounts of their arms in UN-monitored containers. An interim constitution, which transferred all executive power to the prime minister, was to remain in effect until the weapons management plan had been completed, elections had been held, and a permanent constitution had been drafted to replace the 1990 document. The extent of the duties of the king as head of state was to be determined by an elected constituent assembly, which would also draft a new constitution. Elections for the assembly were scheduled for June 2007 but were postponed until November of that year; they were postponed again after the Maoists pulled out of the government, demanding the immediate dissolution of the monarchy. In December 2007 the dominant parties agreed that the assembly, once elected, would not merely determine the fate of the monarchy but would indeed abolish it. When elections were finally held the following April, the Maoists won the most seats, and on May 28, 2008, more than two centuries of royal rule came to an end as the new assembly voted to declare Nepal a democratic republic.