Birendra of Nepal

Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (श्री ५ महाराजाधिराज वीरेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह देव), (28 December 1945 – 1 June 2001) was the tenth King of Nepal from 1972 until his assassination in 2001.

He was the eldest son of King Mahendra.

Birendra was born at the Narayanhiti Royal Palace in Kathmandu as the eldest son of the then Crown Prince Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev and his first wife, Crown Princess Indra Rajya Lakshmi Devi.

Birendra spent eight years studying at St Joseph's School, a Jesuit school in Darjeeling, with his brother Gyanendra.

On 13 March 1955, their grandfather King Tribhuvan died and their father succeeded the Nepalese throne.

With his father's ascension, Birendra became the crown prince of Nepal.

In 1959, Birendra was enrolled at Eton College in the United Kingdom.

After studying at Eton until 1964, he returned to Nepal where he began to explore the country by traveling on foot to the remote parts of the country where he lived humbly with what was available in the villages.

He later completed his education by spending some time at the University of Tokyo, before studying political theory at Harvard University from 1967 to 1968.

Birendra enjoyed travelling in his youth, and went on trips to Canada, Latin America, Africa, many parts of India, and a number of other Asian countries.

He was also an art collector and supporter of Nepalese craftspeople and artists and learned to fly helicopters.

Birendra was married to Aishwarya Rajya Lakshmi Devi from the Rana family, his second cousin, on 27 February 1970.

The wedding, which was billed as one of the most lavish Hindu nuptial ceremonies in history, cost $9.5 million to stage.

Birendra was diagnosed to have coronary artery disease and had undergone angioplasty in United Kingdom as per reports in late 90s.

Birendra ascended to the Nepalese throne on 31 January 1972, at the age of 27, after the death of his father, King Mahendra.

His first trips abroad as king were to India in October 1973 and China two months later.

He prevented the breaking up of Mustang from Nepal and Tibet from China during the Mustang revolution.

The disarmament of Khampas rebellions working against China brought Nepal-China relations to a new height.

His compatriots remember him for his extensive campaign and contribution for the establishment of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and South Asian food reserve.

During his reign, he was also able to set up the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu.

He was able to establish diplomatic relations with additional 46 countries taking the total number of countries for diplomatic relations from 49 to 96.

However, his coronation was delayed until 24 February 1975, when he was 29, since the first year was considered to be a mourning period for death of king's father and the second year was deemed to be inauspicious by religious astrologers.

As a Hindu monarch, he had to follow Nepalese tradition.

On his ascension to the throne, Birendra was effectively an absolute monarch, as he inherited a country where political parties were banned and he ruled through a system of local and regional councils known as panchayats.

In an attempt to maintain the panchayat system of government prominent leaders of the Nepali Congress Party were arrested frequently.

During the 1980s the restraints that had been imposed on political organizations were eased, and liberal student-led groups started to demand constitutional change in Nepal.

Because of the growing pro-democracy movement Birendra announced that a referendum to decide between a party-less or a multi-party system would be held.

During, referendum options were given for a multi-party system or a Panchayati system.

The referendum was held in May 1980 with the party-less system winning by a margin of 55% to 45%.

The result of the election led the king to make mass restructuring of country both economically and politically.

After the national referendum, he divided the nation into 5 development regions in order to create balanced development and visited each division once a year; the visits were discontinued after his status as a constitutional monarchy in 1990.

In 1990, a series of strikes and pro-democracy riots broke out in Nepal.

Due to the riots, Birendra lifted the ban on political parties and agreed to become a constitutional monarch in April 1990.

He appointed an independent Constitution Recommendation Commission to represent the main opposition factions and to prepare a new constitution to accommodate their demands for political reform.

The commission presented him with the draft of the proposed constitution on 10 September 1990.

The new constitution would make Birendra head of state of a constitutional monarchy with a system of multiparty democracy.

The draft constitution was approved by the Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and his cabinet and so, on 9 November 1990, Birendra promulgated the new constitution transformed Nepal into a constitutional monarchy.

As a constitutional monarchy, Birendra became more popular than he was as a autocratic ruler attributing to his democratic views and behaviors as well as the inability of the political parties.

Birendra, however, could not prevent the Nepalese Civil War, a conflict between Maoist rebels and government forces, which lasted from 1996 until 2006.

He managed to maintain Nepal's independence despite encroaching influences by India, China, and the Soviet Union.