Marriage of Convenience

No one in the mile-high Nepalese capital of Katmandu has ever forgotten the lavish coronation of bean-shaped King Mahendra in 1956, when the tiny Himalayan country imported 40 taxicabs, 130 Indian waiters, and everything from pastel bathtubs to Coca-Cola. Now the Nepalese are at it again, this time with a well-publicized royal wedding, billed as one of the most lavish Hindu nuptial ceremonies in history.

The wedding had to be fit for a future king--and god. The bridegroom was Mahendra's son, Crown Prince Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva, 24. He will not only succeed his father some day as monarch but also, the Nepalese believe, as the reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. The prince's bride, and also his second cousin, was Crown Princess Aishwarya Rajya Laxmi Devi Rana, 20, a member of the family that ruled

Nepal as hereditary prime ministers for more than a century before Mahendra's father restored the monarchy inS 1950-51 coup.

Hiding the Hippies. The wedding bill came to $9.5 million--no mean effort for a country whose 10 million people get by on a yearly per capita income of $77. In Katmandu, roads were widened and repaved, street lamps were installed, and Nepalese workmen painted over everything in sight, including the bronze statues of the Rana prime ministers. A new $2 million royal palace was rushed to completion to dazzle an anticipated crush of 3,000 foreign guests. The Nepalese cleared out the shaggiest of the Western hippies, who come to Katmandu to get high on the altitude and cheap hash, and they brought in more than 100 German and Japanese cars to handle the guests. Government offices were cleared from the old 1,200-room Palace of the Lion to make room for the bride's sizable family.

In keeping with King Mahendra's desire to modernize the ancient kingdom from the top down, Birendra has been educated not only at Eton and Tokyo University but also at Harvard, where, according to his official Nepalese biography, he picked up "exciting food for thought." To get through his wedding, however, what the young prince needed most was stamina. First there were two days of elaborate Vedic ceremonies. On the day of the wedding itself, Prince Birendra mounted a silver howdah atop an elephant at the Royal Palace, then led a two-mile procession through the capital. At a courtyard in the Palace of the Lion, the prince joined the princess in seven ceremonial circuits around an eternal flame. They then sat down on a simulated bed for a full night of outdoor chanting with Brahmin priests and more Vedic rituals. In one, the couple's feet were washed by every one of the bride's nearly 200 family members. Clean, but cold; the temperature was about 40DEG F.

Shrewd Politics. Though more than 50 heads of state were invited, only a few, including Laos' King Savang Vat-thana made it in person. Despite efforts by U.S. Ambassador Carol Laise to snare Tricia Nixon, Ohio Senator William Saxbe was the U.S. representative.

But there will be other splashy weddings. Prince Birendra has two younger brothers, both of whom are expected to be betrothed to Princess Aishwarya's two younger sisters. The pairings make shrewd political sense. As 49-year-old King Mahendra figures it, with all of his children marrying into the same family, there is no chance of ambitious in-laws from another clan waging a struggle over the succession.

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