The King of Nepal (traditionally known as the Mahārājdhirāja i.e. Great King of Kings; ) was

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

and

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

from 1768 to 2008. He served as the head of the Nepalese monarchy—

Shah Shāh (; ) is a royal title meaning "king" in the Persian language.Yarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII, no. 1 (1989) Though chiefly associated with the monarchs of Iran, it was also used to refer to the leaders of numerous Per ...

Dynasty. The monarchy was abolished on 28 May 2008 by the 1st Constituent Assembly. The subnational monarchies in

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticate ...

, Bajhang, Salyan, and Jajarkot were abolished in October of the same year.

History

The Kingdom of Nepal was founded on 25 September 1768 by

Prithvi Narayan Shah Prithvi Narayan Shah (; 7 January 1723 – 11 January 1775), was the last king of the Gorkha Kingdom and first king of the Kingdom of Nepal (also called the ''Kingdom of Gorkha''). Prithvi Narayan Shah started the unification of Nepal. He is a ...

, a Gorkha king who succeeded in unifying the kingdoms of

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

, Patan, and

Bhaktapur Bhaktapur (Nepali language, Nepali and Sanskrit: भक्तपुर, ; "City of Devotees"), known locally as Khwopa (Nepal Bhasa: , ) and historically called Bhadgaon, is a city in the east corner of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal located abou ...

into a single state under his

Shah dynasty The Shah dynasty (), also known as the Shahs of Gorkha or the Royal House of Gorkha, was the ruling Chaubise Thakuri dynasty and the founder of the Gorkha Kingdom from 1559 to 1768 and later the unified Kingdom of Nepal from 1768 to 28 May ...

. The Kingdom of Nepal was ''de jure'' an absolute monarchy for most of its history. However, from 1846 until the 1951 revolution, the country was ''de facto'' ruled by the hereditary

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

s from the Rana dynasty, reducing the role of the Shah monarch to that of a

figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a practice of who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet '' de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that ...

. In November 1990, after the Jana Andolan movement, a new

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

was adopted and the country became a

constitutional monarchy Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions. ...

Nepalese Civil War

On 13 February 1996, the

Nepalese Civil War The Nepalese Civil War was a protracted armed conflict that took place in the then Kingdom of Nepal from 1996 to 2006. It saw countrywide fighting between the Kingdom rulers and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), with the latter making ...

was launched by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), with the aim of overthrowing the kingdom and establishing a " people's republic".

Nepalese royal massacre

On 1 June 2001, nine members of the royal family, including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, were killed in a

mass shooting A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...

at the royal residence. Crown Prince Dipendra was implicated in an official investigation. There is a huge controversy concerning this, as there was no practical investigation on that which proves his involvement. Many Nepali people believe that there might be many other people involved in the massacre. Immediately after the massacre, Dipendra was proclaimed king while in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

, but he died on 4 June 2001, after a three-day reign. His uncle, Prince Gyanendra, was appointed

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

for the three days, then ascended the throne himself after Dipendra died.

Post-massacre

On 1 February 2005, as the security situation deteriorated in the civil war, King Gyanendra staged a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

, declared a

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state before, during, o ...

, suspended the constitution and assumed direct control over the country. On 24 April 2006, after the

Loktantra Andolan The 2006 Nepal revolution also known as the Democracy Movement ( ''Jana Andolan II''). It was a political movement that was opposed to Nepal's King of Nepal, monarchy system under King Gyanendra. The movement was the second protest against the ...

movement, the king agreed to give up absolute power and to reinstate the dissolved

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

. On 21 November 2006, the civil war was ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord. On 15 January 2007, the King was suspended from exercising his duties by the newly formed interim legislature. Finally, on 28 May 2008, the kingdom was officially abolished by the 1st Constituent Assembly and the

Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China ...

was declared. The subnational monarchies in

, Bajhang, Salyan, and Jajarkot were also abolished in October 2008.

Royal standard and crown

File:Royal standard of Nepal (circa 1928).svg, Royal Standard of Nepal () File:Royal standard of Nepal (circa 1969).svg, Royal Standard of Nepal () File:Royal standard of Nepal.svg, Royal Standard of Nepal () File:Crown of Kingdom of Nepal "श्रीपेच".jpg, Royal Crown of Nepal, Shripech

References