What Happened to Nepal's Royal Family After the Palace Massacre?

On June 1, 2001, a shooting inside Narayanhiti Palace in Kathmandu left ten members of Nepal's royal family dead, among them King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya. Seven years later, an elected assembly abolished the monarchy by 560 votes to 4, and the palace became a museum. This is what happened to the family afterwards, told from the records: the official inquiry of 2001, the constitution and the assembly's resolution, the former king's own statements, and twenty-five years of reporting in Nepal and abroad. We follow Gyanendra, the brother who suddenly became king, from direct rule in 2005 and the protests of 2006 to his life as a citizen; the wounded survivors, Komal, Shobha, Ketaki Chester and Gorakh; Paras and Himani and their children; Queen Mother Ratna, who never left the palace grounds; Birendra's surviving granddaughters; and the campaign to bring back the crown. If you enjoyed it, please like the video and subscribe to Royal Afterlives. ▼ Chapters 0:00 Opening 1:30 Chapter 1 The Night at Narayanhiti 5:49 Chapter 2 The King Nobody Expected 8:14 Chapter 3 The Last Day of the Kingdom 11:06 Chapter 4 Citizen Gyanendra 14:15 Chapter 5 The Survivors 18:13 Chapter 6 Calls for the Crown 21:14 Ending ▼ Notes • The 2001 inquiry identified Crown Prince Dipendra as the gunman. It did not establish a motive, and its public summary had no autopsy reports. Suspicions about other family members were not supported by the inquiry or upheld by any court. • For living people we report only what public records and named news reports say, and we keep arrests, bail and verdicts apart. • Quotations from Nepali are our translations. • Some scenes are illustrative recreations made to convey the atmosphere of the time. They are not photographs of the people or events in this story. ▼ Main sources Report of the royal inquiry commission (synopsis, June 14, 2001); Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007, as amended); Constituent Assembly resolution of May 28, 2008 (via ICG / UNMIN translation); UN Security Council report S/2008/454; OHCHR, Nepal Conflict Report (2012); Nepal Trust Act 2064 (2008); Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan; Embassy of Japan in Nepal; Nepali Times; The Kathmandu Post; The Himalayan Times; Kantipur; Onlinekhabar; Republica; Setopati; Ratopati; Nepal Press; Nepal News; AFP / ABC News; Reuters; AP; The Times of India; The Indian Express; IPU Parline; Sharecast Initiative. ▼ Image credits (Wikimedia Commons unless noted) CC BY 3.0: Ralf Lotys, Sergey Pashko CC BY-SA 2.0: Peretz Partensky CC BY-SA 2.5: Soman CC BY-SA 3.0: Christopher J. Fynn, Krish Dulal, Philipp Eyer, Soraj Shahi CC BY-SA 4.0: Ashishlohorung, Bijay Chaurasia, Daniel L. Lu, GB Ryan771, Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka, Gerd Eichmann, Himal Subedi, MITHUN KUNWAR, Min Ratna Bajracharya, Nirajan pant, Nirmal Dulal, Pratap Baniya, Ricky Partel, Sonika Aryal, Suraj Belbase Public domain / CC0: U.S. Air Force and White House photographs, Nationaal Archief, British Library EAP, CIA maps, and others. Government of India photographs (GODL-India). Page images: Nepali Times, ABC News (AFP), The Kathmandu Post, Republica, The Himalayan Times, Nepal News (quoted for reporting). Map: based on Natural Earth (public domain). #Nepal #RoyalFamily #History