ABSTRACT
The ghastly end of a popular monarch and his entire family within the heavily secured palace walls at a time of growing national turmoil was tragic enough for the ordinary Nepalese to comprehend. Kathmandu’s probing tabloids had hardly associated Crown Prince Dipendra with even a minor indiscretion in recent years. His complicity in the horrific bloodbath was inexplicable. Compounding the confusion was Gyanendra’s public image as a hardliner who purportedly had opposed Birendra’s decision to restore multiparty democracy in 1990. The fact that Gyanendra was absent from the palace gathering, that his wife, Komal, sustained only minor injuries and that his notoriously wild son, Paras, escaped unhurt set off conspiracy theories. They meshed into the massive outpouring of grief during the extended royal funeral procession and cremations on the banks of the Bagmati River at the Pashupatinath Temple.
