The Young King

"I shall probably never return," said Nepal's ailing, 48-year-old King Tribhubana when he left his 8,500,000 Nepalese subjects last October to seek medical treatment in Europe. Last week, when Tribhubana died of a coronary occlusion in Zurich, the gloomy prophecy was fulfilled. Accompanied by his youngest son and the two Queens he had married when he was only 13, the King's body was brought home to Katmandu, the capital high in the Himalayas where he was crowned at the age of five.

Despite his long reign, Nepal's late King had actually ruled over his country for only a few years. For most of his reign he was virtually a prisoner of the powerful Rana nobles, who held despotic power over Nepal as its hereditary Prime Ministers. While the King stayed at home in his palace reading Shelley, the Ranas ran his country with an iron hand, indulging their taste for bizarre ornamentation by filling their 30-odd marble palaces with fancy clocks and comical distorting mirrors imported from Coney Island. In 1950, fired by neighboring India, a revolution at last unseated the despotic Ranas, and Tribhubana was set up as a true king, but the "democratic rule" he promptly proclaimed turned out to be only that of a pack of corrupt politicians. Last month, lying ill in Nice, he formally turned the whole job over to his eldest son, Prince Mahendra, 34.

Mahendra put aside his plaid sport jacket and made a predawn pilgrimage to the golden-roofed temple of the Lord Pashupatinath to pray to Shiva for guidance while a river of milk flowed over his feet. In the midst of the prayer, a great clap of thunder shattered the silence of Katmandu. Mahendra took it as an omen and promptly fired Nepal's Prime Minister. A democratically-minded young man, Mahendra was outraged by Nepalese politics. "Some people excuse themselves by saying Nepalese democracy is still only in its infancy, but this seems a strange excuse to me," said the young King. "Infants do not indulge in bribery and corruption."

Last week, as his father's body was brought to the burning ghat near the same temple, the new King's subjects were ordered to go--and pay homage. Men shaved their heads and donned mourning clothes of unbleached cotton. For 13 days no Nepalese would take salt, eat more than one meal a day, or sleep on anything but straw. As the flames licked at the royal cadaver, thousands of Nepalese set up a mournful wail. But King Mahendra was not present; Nepalese custom demanded that he alone of all his late father's subjects must show no grief.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.