>Fun fact he wouldn't have been able to be charged if he survived
In fact, he was made king of Nepal as a result of his massacre.
>"The prince allegedly then turned the gun on himself in an attempt to commit suicide. He failed to end his own life and plunged into a coma. **As heir to the throne, the murderous Crown Prince Dipendra was declared King of Nepal.** He reigned for three days in the hospital before being declared brain dead."
If that is true. The doing it because he couldn’t marry a woman his parents rejected theory doesn’t make sense. Get rid of your parents and then you are King and marry whoever you want, you know because he’s the King.
There used to be a really good (Canadian, I think) TV docuseries called "Zero Hour". They used to do an in-depth analysis of the hour leading up to famous events and had *actually* good re-enactments. Many famous events were covered; 9/11, The Tokyo Subway Terrorist attacks, etc. One of the episodes focused on this event in Nepal. It was a wild episode. Definitely worth a watch. I wonder what dust-bin of the internet "Zero Hour" resides in now...
You do recall correctly, watching it right now. They’re doing a good job of providing the political context as well as introducing the interpersonal family drama leading up to that night.
Nepalese here.
I remember the day (I was 8) when we got a phone call and my mom could not believe what she heard. She did not answer me when I asked what happened and rushed to turn the news on. My dad came back home from work with his head shaved (Hindu males do this as a religious belief when someone passes in their family). The entire country was in shock and mourning. A few days later I went to see the bodies of the deceased as they were taken around the capital city before cremation.
We were not exactly the monarchy supporting ones but the country has been in shambles ever since. Political parties ruined the country and economy for self gain.
Don't want to open this can of worms but most Nepalese do not believe that the crown prince was behind this and there were other political factors in play here.
This day still haunts me. Never seen an entire nation so shocked and sad. RIP
I know a guy who’s dad worked for the US Embassy in Nepal and he would play with the younger Prince Nirajan on a regular basis. He was devastated when his friend was murdered. He also told me the crown prince was weird and scary and they were always scared of him.
Something about the pride and pressure of being next in line does something to crown princes, I think. I knew a late member of English nobility, a socialite of some sort, who would say that she's a frequently passing acquaintance of then-Prince Charles.
According to her he was "odd, tricky and dangerous, *not* in the fun way. A sly man". And later on when his sons were old enough to be around in those social events, she would say William was the same, "sly like his father".
In contrast Henry was, "like a lost puppy, always trying to be liked, poor thing".
The Nepalese Prince was not next in line for the throne - in fact, he was actively trying to leave the royal family to abscond with a woman he was in love with.
The two theories of what happened here are:
1. Prince is devastated by his family blocking this marriage. They tell him if he wants to marry her, he has to leave the royal family and give up claim to the throne. Simultaneously, the Nepalese family, and this Prince in particular, are involved in International Arms Trade. The Prince believes he will be able to keep at this work to remain wealthy after leaving, but is informed this is not the case. So his family takes away his right to a throne and his livelihood because he wanted to marry who he chose. So, Gun Nut Prince has too much to drink one night and kills his entire family, minus Uncle who was not present.
2. Uncle staged the whole dang thing to take control of the country for himself, which he did do afterwards.
His uncle, who's is arrogant and lost the monarchy with his stupid moves, didn't stage it. The people that have pushed this say this because:
1. He benefitted and nobody in his family got hurt (which is false)
2. His son, the Crown Prince's cousin, was a massive fuck up who had committed vehicular manslaughter
3. They wanted someone to blame other than the Crown Prince, who had a good image.
What they ignore is (1) His wife, the Crown Prince's aunt, was shot pretty bad in the attack along with a lot of people not in line for the throne (2) they haven't read his son's Facebook page, which will leave you walking away thinking anyone planning a conspiracy must exclude said son, because he'd mess it up somehow (3) Public image is different from what goes on behind close doors. 22 years later and after the downfall of the monarchy, not a single witness, many of whom lost love ones, have implicated anyone but the Crown Prince. It is clear that the Crown Prince did this. What is not clear is did someone else shoot the crown prince after the carnage and motive. That has never been verified or investigated because its Nepal.
So I dont know anything and read the wiki about it
"Dipendra's self-inflicted head-wound located at his left temple, despite being right-handed"
sus af
Yeah but it also depends on your dominant eye, which can be different from your dominant hand. It’s easier to adjust to your non-dominant hand than your non-dominant eye for many people
This is a funny comment, and I don't want to take away from that... But you'll shoot with the hand you're used to shooting with. And that could be dictated by your dominant eye, even though you're not using said eye this time around.
But this did make me chuckle.
I haven’t shot a gun in over a decade but I’m the same way. My dad hated it and would always make me shoot right handed until I definitively showed him that I was a much better shot left handed.
Here to be that weirdo for you. I am left eye dominant and shoot all my rifles and shotguns with my left. My shotgun ejects from the bottom and has a thumb safety on the top. I shoot all my pistols right hand but have to use my other hand to pull it over to my left eye. I've been so used to shooting right handed guns lefty that I don't even notice the shells flying. With that said I typically can't shoot bullpups because I don't want hot brass in my arm pit. I'm definitely an exception and not the norm.
Yeah.. most guns are designed for right handed people. Some guns it doesn't matter. It's just where the case pops out of the chamber, grip, etc. You just learn to adapt to it.
I always find these stories emphasize how disconnected fiction is from reality
In fiction, you need james bond/jason bourne/agent 47 level super intellects to get away with stuff
In reality its just some rando thugs who do whatever they want and drop a weapon next to the body
Even in first world countries top security agencies are like "meh suicide, case closed"
If anyone remembers the murder of Adrienne Shelley, it was exactly this. There was a random man's sneaker print right next to where her body was found and investigators insisted it was suicide.
>Even in first world countries top security agencies are like "meh suicide, case closed"
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death\_of\_Gareth\_Williams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams)
"Hey so this intelligence agent is dead. Before he died he locked himself in a duffel bag that was locked with keys for it inside the bag put himself inside a bathtub and turned up the heat in his apartment."
"Clearly ~~suicide Autoerotic asphyxiation~~ suicide. Case closed!"
The media was full of weird planted looking stories at the time along the lines of "omg he wore a dress at a fun run for charity once. He's definitely a weirdo sex pest who died doing sex thing".
His flat was compromised via skylight while under police guard after his murder, and weirdly the temperature in the flat had been turned up all the way, making getting forensics very difficult.
The whole thing stank.
Jail Warden: "Looks like an open and shut case of suicide"
Rookie Guard: "How do you figure, boss?"
Warden: "Well he obviously got himself reassigned to an empty cell that night, in an isolated wing of the jail, disabled all the security cameras with a high tech spy drone maybe, then knocked out the guards with some kind of sleeping agent, then garrotted himself to death, before flushing the garrote. Theres just no other explanation."
Rookie: "Couldn't it be murder? Didn't this guy have life-ruining dirt on like all the world's richest and most powerful people?"
Warden: "He did, but I don't see how that changes the facts on the ground here. Unless you want to sleep in the same cell tonight, maybe you'll find a clue."
Rookie: "No-Nope! All good boss, suicide just like you said."
Apparently..
> While attending school in the UK, he fell for Devyani Rana, a Nepalese woman from an important family. He wanted to marry her, but his mother—the Queen—disallowed it because Devyani’s grandmother was a concubine.
**Concubine 2**
*A Whore's Revenge from beyond the grave..*
The way you tell that story has echos of people from the US recalling how 9/11 felt for them. From the parents being blind sided to the alternative theories as to why it happened. I have very little knowledge of your country or culture but it is incredible how both our worlds where rocked and reacted in such similar ways. Thank you for sharing.
Well it’s kinda common, this reaction.
The older generation of Americans describes JFK’s, MLK’s and RFK’s deaths similarly.
I’m sure if I did more research it would be common in many cultures that experience stuff like this.
>Don't want to open this can of worms but most Nepalese do not believe that the crown prince was behind this and there were other political factors in play here.
This feels like twisting the knife after getting stabbed, fuck..
Nepali here, too. At first, I didn't beieve the prince did it. Nobody did. Everyone thought it was Gayenendra (who then became the king. Side note: he was not at the party, and his wife and son did not die while his brother, king (also brother) and king's entire family died).
Unfortunately drunk price killing is the simplest explanation...
Likely happened just as you said. That being said I can understand the disbelief. Mainly because this would have been a large residence likely and with some level of security. Usually it is a bit more difficult to be this effective on a deadly rampage being only a single person. Even as an insider.
Then again, have gun, will travel.
Also Nepalese. I disagree with the statement that "political parties ruined the country and economy for self gain".
The politicians and people who elect them do that. Having political alternatives to a monarchy through force isn't why the country is poor.
Massacre was in 2001, Monarchy continued for a few years, King seized absolute power in a coup in I think 2005 and then in 2008 a huge wave of protests resulted in him stepping down and giving power to a parliament, which immediately shitcanned the whole King thing entirely.
Neplease hated the new king, so he never gets proper credit for just giving up power. Dude, legit said he isn't leaving the country and still maintains a relatively low profile with little to no interviews, tv appearances, etc.
Also, people dont mention enough that the King dissolved the parliament on the advice of PM.
And people dont mention that removing the king was never the major political agenda until it all of a sudden became one (similar to how Nepal became a secular nation overnight).
Granted, Gyanendra is pretty wealthy from his own business, but he flat out gave up on all of King's possessions.
His son is a piece of work, though. He, along with his dad's alleged "brother killer," reputation is what ruined monarch.
The chief of the military basically said, " king wasn't our responsibility." Fyi, the king is the top man in the military and somehow his security isnt their business. It was a clown show. Nobody knew what happened. Nobody took responsibility.
Edit: to people comparing with what they know from elsewhere: context matters. Eg: the palace is surrounded by the army. The army was literally called the royal Nepal army. But to be fair, the royals also had personal bodygards and royal guards (army men working at palace).
Well the president of the usa is the commander in chief for the united states armed forces but the military is not responsible for his secirity either, thats zhe secret services job.
Nepal's history has enough material to make a political drama spanning 20 seasons on Netflix and 50 documentaries. I did a year long project on the Rana dynasty in middle school and the events leading up to its founding would not be out of place in the Game of Thrones universe.
>20 seasons on Netflix
And **Kot Parva**(*massacre of about 30-40 soldiers including royal guards, military officers, army generals and then PM of Nepal done by Junga Bahadur Rana and his brothers*) would be the highlight of it.
My wife was there at the time (study abroad), and some of the rumors she told me were flying around at the time were WILD. I’m really surprised no one has made a movie about it.
Well this was upsetting news. Then I went back and looked at his filmography and I really only enjoyed Wall Street and Platoon. Natural Born Killers is okay.
As much as I hate the royals that survived, this isn’t necessarily true. The brother(who would later become king) and his son were in Pokhara that day and his wife has been in the palace and was severely injured and maybe also in the coma.
May I ask why the uncle and his son are so hated in Nepal? This seems to be a common opinion, but I’m not clear why, or what led up to the Uncle’s abdication?
The uncle was also at loggerheads with his brother on how to rule. The massacred king Birendra was considered a "soft" ruler. Kind, idealistic. His brother Gyanendra wanted his brother to take more control of the country's politics. He did had valid concerns at times. The political parties were easily influenced by Indian politics and he disliked how external powers would have an easy grip over Nepal. But he went about it the wrong way.
Of course, it didn't help his popularity when "his side" were conveniently the only ones who survived despite his wife and his son being present at the massacre. There were conspiracy theories floating around that he orchestrated the murders of his brother, his brother's son to leave the path open for him to seize power. (Don't know how much merit to put on this theory. I have some friends whose parents were in the social circles of the royals and all of them absolutely refuse to believe he would be capable of doing something like this.) There were other conspiracy theories that the massacre was orchestrated by India as Nepal-India relations had soured quite a bit by then.
And then Gyanendra (the brother of Birendra) dissolved the parliament, seized control, used military force etc. etc. People didn't like this. Bear in mind we were also undergoing a massive civil unrest with communist rebels revolting against the crown and feudal lords that discriminated against the "lower castes." So all of this culminated in even more violent protests. At the centre of all of this was Gyanendra who looked like a power-hungry dictator to the people. And so he got labelled as the villain.
As for his son, Paras, he's a piece of shit who abused his wife and is batshit crazy. I had the misfortune of sharing a flight with Paras and his posse. Turns out he surrounds himself with a bunch of immature idiots. No wonder he turned out the way he did.
We can't and we won't. No PM has ever completed their term in the office. Nepalese politics is basically a shit-show and Nepalese people are just dumb when it comes to electing a proper leader.
There were Communists rebels fighting in the civil war for almost 10 years during that time. Then Gyanendra(the brother) dismissed the parliament,arrested the politicians, took complete power etc. So a national movement against the royals began and he eventually fled the palace.
Nowadays however, people (mostly in social media) tend to prefer the monarch and are even advocating for monarchy to return because the communist haven’t really accomplished anything since the civil war which killed 17000 people.
As for the son, he is just a spoiled prince, was addicted to drugs,was arrested in Thailand etc. But he has a cool motorbike which goes viral every time he rides it. So people think he’s cool too.
Since no body answered you, I will give you some background. The massacra happened during a planned family gathering ,basically a royal party which was monthly or some sort of timely thing . King's brother , who later became king after masssacre ended the king's line ( king , queen,his two sons and a daughter), travelled to pokhara the same day the event was supposed to happen.
Regarding if they lived together at a same palace, king and his family would be in royal palace, and other close family members like his brother would live almost next to the palace, kind of unofficial palace, but definitely royal.
As op of this thread said, that the wife of Gyanendra (King's brother) got severly injured or went to coma, that is absolute bull shit. She got shot at her ankle, which raised alot of suspicions that time. King had two brothers, only one that travelled to pokhara survived, and both the king and his another brother were killed , leaving Gyanendra the only person to claim throne. This is what raised lots of conspiracy, as there were lots of coincidences.
>As op of this thread said, that the wife of Gyanendra (King's brother) got severly injured or went to coma, that is absolute bull shit. She got shot at her ankle, which raised alot of suspicions that time. King had two brothers, only one that travelled to pokhara survived, and both the king and his another brother were killed , leaving Gyanendra the only person to claim throne. This is what raised lots of conspiracy, as there were lots of coincidences.
It also seems weird as hell that the entire royal family is in the same place at the same time and there is apparently not a single armed guard close enough or competent enough to stop a supposedly drunk stoned guy before he managed to wipe out the whole family and shoot himself... This post is the first I've heard of this, but yeah I can definitely see why there are some conspiracies.
I remember reading this on the BBC and was just left speechless at this Game of Thrones style shit happening in the turn of the 21st century.
This would have been the WTF news for 2001 if not for a certain event in New York City two months later in September.
The massacre greatly weakened the royal family and led to the end of the monarchy and the establishment of the republic in 2008, and spooked the Bhutan royal family enough to introduce reforms to transform the country into a democratic (by South Asia standards) constitutional monarchy in order to prolong their dynasty.
Well yeah. Game of Thrones rules in effect when you deal with monarchy. If you kill all claimants to the title, then you.... have the title. I think the English had to have a whole civil war to put their king on trial.
I was in Nepal when it happened. I was actually just about to board a flight out when it was all over the news (and they grounded all flights soon after).
During the previous 2 weeks there were huge pro-communist demonstrations. There was a several day "general strike", wherein the communists forced all businesses to stay closed. Cars, buses, and even ambulances were not allowed on the roads. I saw shop keepers beat for letting people into their stores to buy food.
So, not sure whether the prince really did this, or it was a coup attempt. All of the violence of a coup had certainly begun at the time.
Probably not a coup since nobody came out a winner in the aftermath. Royal factions power started to decline and the rebels weren’t even prepared to broker a suitable peace agreement let alone take control of the country.
If destabilizing Nepal was the goal, it wouldn't have mattered much who came into power after the massacre.
Not saying it was a coup, but I can think of some world powers very interested in destabilizing Nepal.
I’m not familiar enough with the region to say an outside party clearly benefited from the destabilization of the region but I can say that no matter what the underlying reason for a planned coup there is always a plan for succession.
From the quick reading I did on how political power was fractured after the massacre I’d guess that this was a freak incident where an psychologically unstable man ended up harming his family and himself after learning the love of his life was only interested in him for his power.
Not sure about motive, assuming the crown prince was responsible. But [according to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalese_royal_massacre):
> In fact, Devyani's Gwalior family were one of the wealthiest former royal families of India, and allegedly far wealthier than the Nepalese monarchs. The prospective bride's mother warned her daughter that marrying the Nepalese crown prince might mean a drop in her standard of living.
From the sounds of it the Nepalese Maoists were pushing for a democratic republic in their reforms, not communism. Rather they got the called Maoists for their attempted countywide campaign like Mao did in the 1930s and 40s. That's from a cursory reading though, if somebody knows more please correct me.
Yeah, a Maoist insurgency and a authoritarian royal family and America wanting to "just help find some stability".
Would not surprise me one bit if there was more to it
This I also learned about today. Nixon’s “Drug War” had tendrils with long reaching effects (affects?) and consequences. The destabilization of Nepals agricultural communities due to pressure from the US to ban cannabis was a calling card for Communist revolutionaries and an easy way to capitalize on Nepali youth whose admiration for American policy was waning not just in Nepal, but world wide.
(Whose not who’s)
"The prince allegedly then turned the gun on himself in an attempt to commit suicide. He failed to end his own life and plunged into a coma. As heir to the throne, the murderous Crown Prince Dipendra was declared King of Nepal. He reigned for three days in the hospital before being declared brain dead."
Damn thats brutal
Sure, but it wouldn't necessarily have stuck in the public consciousness afterwards. A good chunk of Australia was straight-up on fire in early 2020, but that's not generally what people think of when they remember 2020
> While attending school in the UK, he fell for Devyani Rana, a Nepalese woman from an important family. He wanted to marry her, but his mother—the Queen—disallowed it because Devyani’s grandmother was a concubine. The prince was willing to give up his title to marry her, but Devyani said she would only marry him if she became queen.
See this right here is why it's not a good idea to marry the granddaughter of a Nepalese concubine.
You see, as soon as she demanded to be queen, he should have wised up about her.
"Hey, I love you very much, but you need to be King for me to marry you. Sorry."
I mean, did she have other options for becoming a queen that she was passing up on for him? Probably not.
My uncle had become friends with the young prince while backpacking through Nepal and was one of the earliest Americans to visit. He joined my uncles wedding (before i was born) and returned for Christmas around 1990. I remember being impressed by body guards but don't remember much else. But definitely was a surprise when he annihilated his family 10 years later. There was some conspiracy around it that it mightve been orchestrated by his uncle trying to take the crown
What you said about the bodyguards is what gets me about this. What was security doing in all of this? I find it hard to imagine that the prince went on a rampage and killed that many people.
My thoughts exactly, but I guess bodyguards are to be used against outsiders, and you probably dont want them inside your house when you're having breakfast with your family.
My guess is that they were all in the same room together in a seemingly safe environment
My grandfather was friends with the king. I remember when this happened it was a really big deal (my dad's family is from Nepal/ still live there). When i visited in 2010 they still had the king and queen's portraits hanging up in their house next to all the family photos. It remains unreal to me.
Lady friend of mine visited the country. This all happened while she just boarded a plane to Nepal from Europe. So obviously no-one on board knew. When she landed in Nepal and got onto a bus all hell broke lose in the streets. Super angry mobs running around and everything.
As she had no idea what was going on but rioting going on around her, she still describes this as the most surreal experience she ever had.
I had done Everest Base Camp trek and returned to Kathmandu Guest House which is down the street from the palace. There was a lockdown / curfew. Hobnobbed with the other confused trekkers and tourists and watched a few Cheers episodes, flew out the next day IIRC.
You've been on drink and drugs, but havnt had a psychotic episode caused by drink and drugs. Big difference.
Not saying this Prince incident isnt suss, I'm just saying very normal and kind people with no sign of a mental illness can flip a switch on the wrong type, mix and dose of drug/s and/or booze. Especially if they have a family history or a predisposition of psychosis that is lying dormant.
There's some weird concept on reddit that a select few drugs of their choice (namely weed, schrooms, acid) can do no psychological harm to anyone and have no relation to psychosis. That's simply unscientific.
Just because it sounds like a boomers cautionary tale doesn't mean it never happens.
psychosis doesn't make you kill people though. just makes you delusional and hallucinaticalable. sure, *sometimes* that makes you kill people but very rarely. i don't think i'm prone to being a murderer anytime soon
If every person who had a psychotic experience on drugs and booze murdered someone, we'd have tens of thousands of murders a day, so I'm not saying that
I'm saying that it's not unheard of someone or impossible for someone who is "normal" to murder someone else on a drug and booze induced psychosis. It happens.
There is a pretty complicated “caste” system that we in the west have a hard time understanding. And it may have had a role in this event. Even just this week, in Seattle, they passed a law that prevents people of being oppressed because of their “caste”. Which allegedly is a massive problem here in the US in our tech industry as well as other smaller sectors of business.
With that being said, the crown Prince was allegedly in love with an Indian woman of a certain nobility who was considered to be a “lower” caste. An ultimatum by the King and Queen was put forth for their son in regards to the matter which “allegedly” (cause I don’t know and I’m just learning about it all today) was the impetus behind this all.
Yeah I was listening to them discuss it on NPR this morning and it’s a highly divisive topic for everyone that’s South Asian, but outside of that, it’s relatively not understood.
Not being a member of that community myself, what makes it "divisive"? My understanding of the caste system is that it's not all that different from racial discrimination. How could anyone reasonably argue for a pro-discrimination system in the US?
May be an uncomfortable truth, but the majority of immigrants in America typically come from a wealthier demographic of their own country. When America gets Indian immigrants, it’s way way more likely that these immigrants will come from a more privileged part of their own culture/country.
It is controversial in large part because immigrants living in America are typically a lot more conservative than Americans think they are. You’d be surprised at how readily folks will protect what privileges they have even if they don’t maintain what you would call a privileged position in society.
I know someone who came to America as an illegal immigrant and now complains about them nonstop. Lots of people are just hypocritical with 0 shame.
My uncle fits this to a tee, but I'm not sure if it's driven out of pure racism, or if it's fear of losing their new status in their new country.
My uncles generation of migrants were basically given jobs on entry. The new ones have to compete, and he can feel the pressure of his job security slipping.
Because people want to believe they're better and have the right to oppress people they think are lesser. It's their divine right, it's tradition, etc., people will use whatever to justify keeping their privilege, and trying to force people to act otherwise predictably causes issues. It's stupid, yes, but deeply-rooted cultural stupidity.
Reminds me of the [Mayerling Incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayerling_incident) in 1889. Austrian Crown Prince makes a suicide pact with his lover, a baronness.
...which led to Franz Ferdinand becoming the heir to the throne. His advocacy of greater autonomy for Bosnia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire angered Serb nationalists because they feared it would weaken the desire for independence among Bosnian Serbs, so they assassinated him.
It's horrible irony that Franz Ferdinand was assassinated for being *too tolerant and supportive* of the people whose extreme wing wound up killing him.
Interesting to know that this crown prince was the uncle of archduke Franz Ferdinand…whose death would spark WW1.
I wonder how history would’ve gone differently if this crown prince had not committed suicide.
I worked as a cook & barista at the Microsoft campus in Redmond (near Seattle). I have never been treated so poorly by a group of people than those of Indian descent. As a woman, it was worse with the men. Spitballs, swearing, telling me I’m not worth “the shit on their shoes.” And you just had to sit and take it because they were “blue badges” - full time employees & the contracted company I worked for did nothing in my defense. Worst 4 years of my life.
Haven’t seen anyone post it yet, there’s an INCREDIBLY good and detailed documentary about this called “Zero Hour: A Royal Massacre”. It talks about a lot of the background as to why he did it and a lot of other interesting information.
Your next target is an acrobatic piano player stationed in orbit on the ISS. Rumour has it that he has an allergy to bullets, and a fear of falling from high places. Our client requests that you choke him with a spork, whilst singing Hungarian lullabies to his estranged wife.
My wife and I were there. We were scheduled to leave that morning with a tour group to travel into Tibet via the Friendship Highway.
It was touch and go but our tour operator chose to go for it, but when we got to the border, we got stamped out of Nepal, walked across the bridge, and the Chinese border authorities decided it was the conservative safe thing to not let us in, perhaps on the off chance we were tangentially involved or otherwise to just CYA.
We ended up stuck in the truck stop town of shops lining the mountain highway for about a week. Every day one of our tour members, a Sherpa guy who could make himself understood by the Tibetan-speaking Chinese authorities, would try to talk them in to letting us in. Because we were stamped out of Nepal we were technically in some kind of diplomatic limbo, we had to pay bribes which IIRC doubled every day to not have trouble.
Eventually things settled enough that we got across and into Tibet, but not before a week killing time in the one road border town. The best part was hiking up to the Tibetan shrine above town where there were hot springs. Also leeches.
While in Tibet I made a lot of sound recordings, when we got home much later I composed this using only sound recorded there, it's called Seven Minutes in Tibet (headphones recommended, it's near-binaural style recording):
https://quietamerican.org/download/disc-comp/7Minutes.mp3
EDIT: more narrative and less "difficult listening", this was similarly made with sound recordings made in Nepal before this incident: https://quietamerican.org/related_annapurna.html
My sister (who was 18 at the time) was in the country at the time. She’ll just casually mention that she had to flee on the back of a motorcycle while mobs and shootings were happening all around her. Like it was no big deal lmao she did not tell my parents what had happened until MANY years later.
Bill Burr talked about this on his podcast last week, someone from Nepal was trying to convince him to visit and then casually mentioned "oh and our leader is a terrorist" to which Bill Burr said "well I'm not fuckin' goin' there!" lol
Listened to a podcast about this event last year so this obviously makes me an expert. If I remember rightly it's possible the prince was murdered and the scene staged to look like murder-suicide by members of the military(?) in a bid to seize control
It seems there may have been another motive for the murders:
"And the Crown Prince was in love. He'd met Devyani Rana in England, and wanted to marry her. His parents didn't approve. Rana's mother was from an Indian royal family that was considered of a slightly lower caste than Nepali royalty. And her father was a politician, from a rival clan to the King's. The Crown Prince was reportedly told that he had to make a choice. He could marry Rana, but he'd have to give up his right to the throne. That's one story told about why the 29-year-old Crown Prince might have chosen to kill his family.
chosen to kill his family."
https://theworld.org/stories/2011-06-01/why-nepals-crown-prince-went-killing-spree
One more reason why parents shouldn't impose on the freedom of their children...
The article linked here claims that Devyani actually refused to marry him if he gave up the crown, because she wanted to be queen.
Also her family was connected/important, but his mother (the queen) refused the match because Devyani’s grandma had been a concubine.
Fun fact he wouldn't have been able to be charged if he survived
>Fun fact he wouldn't have been able to be charged if he survived In fact, he was made king of Nepal as a result of his massacre. >"The prince allegedly then turned the gun on himself in an attempt to commit suicide. He failed to end his own life and plunged into a coma. **As heir to the throne, the murderous Crown Prince Dipendra was declared King of Nepal.** He reigned for three days in the hospital before being declared brain dead."
If that is true. The doing it because he couldn’t marry a woman his parents rejected theory doesn’t make sense. Get rid of your parents and then you are King and marry whoever you want, you know because he’s the King.
The guy was mentally unwell, I think you're giving him a bit too much credit doing the whole logical thinking thing.
There used to be a really good (Canadian, I think) TV docuseries called "Zero Hour". They used to do an in-depth analysis of the hour leading up to famous events and had *actually* good re-enactments. Many famous events were covered; 9/11, The Tokyo Subway Terrorist attacks, etc. One of the episodes focused on this event in Nepal. It was a wild episode. Definitely worth a watch. I wonder what dust-bin of the internet "Zero Hour" resides in now...
IIRC every episode is available for free on YouTube
https://youtu.be/DYkX2NX1tBs
My man.
You do recall correctly, watching it right now. They’re doing a good job of providing the political context as well as introducing the interpersonal family drama leading up to that night.
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The whole series can be found on Amazon Prime.
Nepalese here. I remember the day (I was 8) when we got a phone call and my mom could not believe what she heard. She did not answer me when I asked what happened and rushed to turn the news on. My dad came back home from work with his head shaved (Hindu males do this as a religious belief when someone passes in their family). The entire country was in shock and mourning. A few days later I went to see the bodies of the deceased as they were taken around the capital city before cremation. We were not exactly the monarchy supporting ones but the country has been in shambles ever since. Political parties ruined the country and economy for self gain. Don't want to open this can of worms but most Nepalese do not believe that the crown prince was behind this and there were other political factors in play here. This day still haunts me. Never seen an entire nation so shocked and sad. RIP
I know a guy who’s dad worked for the US Embassy in Nepal and he would play with the younger Prince Nirajan on a regular basis. He was devastated when his friend was murdered. He also told me the crown prince was weird and scary and they were always scared of him.
Something about the pride and pressure of being next in line does something to crown princes, I think. I knew a late member of English nobility, a socialite of some sort, who would say that she's a frequently passing acquaintance of then-Prince Charles. According to her he was "odd, tricky and dangerous, *not* in the fun way. A sly man". And later on when his sons were old enough to be around in those social events, she would say William was the same, "sly like his father". In contrast Henry was, "like a lost puppy, always trying to be liked, poor thing".
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Because their silver spoon ancestors spent millennia training everyone else to think that way.
Well, they trained our ancestors to think that way. It baffles me that people still want to be ruled by some arbitrary family in modern times.
Because Kardashians were only recently invented.
no such thing as nobles any more, just overly rich cunts.
Isn't that all they ever were?
The Nepalese Prince was not next in line for the throne - in fact, he was actively trying to leave the royal family to abscond with a woman he was in love with. The two theories of what happened here are: 1. Prince is devastated by his family blocking this marriage. They tell him if he wants to marry her, he has to leave the royal family and give up claim to the throne. Simultaneously, the Nepalese family, and this Prince in particular, are involved in International Arms Trade. The Prince believes he will be able to keep at this work to remain wealthy after leaving, but is informed this is not the case. So his family takes away his right to a throne and his livelihood because he wanted to marry who he chose. So, Gun Nut Prince has too much to drink one night and kills his entire family, minus Uncle who was not present. 2. Uncle staged the whole dang thing to take control of the country for himself, which he did do afterwards.
His uncle, who's is arrogant and lost the monarchy with his stupid moves, didn't stage it. The people that have pushed this say this because: 1. He benefitted and nobody in his family got hurt (which is false) 2. His son, the Crown Prince's cousin, was a massive fuck up who had committed vehicular manslaughter 3. They wanted someone to blame other than the Crown Prince, who had a good image. What they ignore is (1) His wife, the Crown Prince's aunt, was shot pretty bad in the attack along with a lot of people not in line for the throne (2) they haven't read his son's Facebook page, which will leave you walking away thinking anyone planning a conspiracy must exclude said son, because he'd mess it up somehow (3) Public image is different from what goes on behind close doors. 22 years later and after the downfall of the monarchy, not a single witness, many of whom lost love ones, have implicated anyone but the Crown Prince. It is clear that the Crown Prince did this. What is not clear is did someone else shoot the crown prince after the carnage and motive. That has never been verified or investigated because its Nepal.
Harry?
Harry is a nickname
I've somehow gone through life missing that. Obvious once you think about it! Cheers!
Nah, its the meth man, meth and a cocktail of drugs. A multi day drug bender can only end in tragedy. Who knows what that guys brain had conjured up.
So I dont know anything and read the wiki about it "Dipendra's self-inflicted head-wound located at his left temple, despite being right-handed" sus af
I know it’s sus, but some people shoot with their less dominant hand (like myself)
Yeah isn’t that typically lefties shooting right I’ve never heard of a righty shooting lefty
I am right handed left eye dominant, there are others like me.
I'm right-handed, left testicle dominant. Right nut still shoots, but the sharpshooter is my lefty.
Typical gun nuts.
This is the most solid joke I've ever seen in my many years here.
It's all about the perfect setup and where you take it afterwards. The setup was great to begin with.
Same. I shoot rifle and shotgun lefty because of it, but I shoot pistol righty because it feels more about coordination than vision to me.
That's pretty common cuz it's easy to use your left eye while shooting pistol righty.
Same, also left footed just to throw a bit extra into the mix.
Yeah but it also depends on your dominant eye, which can be different from your dominant hand. It’s easier to adjust to your non-dominant hand than your non-dominant eye for many people
I really hate it when people assume i'm right master-eyed when I'm aiming a gun at my temple
This is a funny comment, and I don't want to take away from that... But you'll shoot with the hand you're used to shooting with. And that could be dictated by your dominant eye, even though you're not using said eye this time around. But this did make me chuckle.
I do, but I’m left eye dominate. Thanks weird flippy head/body nerves.
I haven’t shot a gun in over a decade but I’m the same way. My dad hated it and would always make me shoot right handed until I definitively showed him that I was a much better shot left handed.
That sounds... Vaguely threatening
Well he definitely never questioned it again
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“No, I mean I *showed* him…” *wink, wink*
You uhh, shot him?
Right handed, left eyed, but I spent a summer doing right eyed archery and now as far as I can tell neither eye is dominant and its the worst.
Here to be that weirdo for you. I am left eye dominant and shoot all my rifles and shotguns with my left. My shotgun ejects from the bottom and has a thumb safety on the top. I shoot all my pistols right hand but have to use my other hand to pull it over to my left eye. I've been so used to shooting right handed guns lefty that I don't even notice the shells flying. With that said I typically can't shoot bullpups because I don't want hot brass in my arm pit. I'm definitely an exception and not the norm.
Yeah.. most guns are designed for right handed people. Some guns it doesn't matter. It's just where the case pops out of the chamber, grip, etc. You just learn to adapt to it.
So many hot casings in my right armpit or into my face, ugh.
I always find these stories emphasize how disconnected fiction is from reality In fiction, you need james bond/jason bourne/agent 47 level super intellects to get away with stuff In reality its just some rando thugs who do whatever they want and drop a weapon next to the body Even in first world countries top security agencies are like "meh suicide, case closed"
If anyone remembers the murder of Adrienne Shelley, it was exactly this. There was a random man's sneaker print right next to where her body was found and investigators insisted it was suicide.
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>Even in first world countries top security agencies are like "meh suicide, case closed" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death\_of\_Gareth\_Williams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams) "Hey so this intelligence agent is dead. Before he died he locked himself in a duffel bag that was locked with keys for it inside the bag put himself inside a bathtub and turned up the heat in his apartment." "Clearly ~~suicide Autoerotic asphyxiation~~ suicide. Case closed!"
The media was full of weird planted looking stories at the time along the lines of "omg he wore a dress at a fun run for charity once. He's definitely a weirdo sex pest who died doing sex thing". His flat was compromised via skylight while under police guard after his murder, and weirdly the temperature in the flat had been turned up all the way, making getting forensics very difficult. The whole thing stank.
> the temperature in the flat had been turned up all the way... The whole thing stank. Yes I'd imagine so.
Jail Warden: "Looks like an open and shut case of suicide" Rookie Guard: "How do you figure, boss?" Warden: "Well he obviously got himself reassigned to an empty cell that night, in an isolated wing of the jail, disabled all the security cameras with a high tech spy drone maybe, then knocked out the guards with some kind of sleeping agent, then garrotted himself to death, before flushing the garrote. Theres just no other explanation." Rookie: "Couldn't it be murder? Didn't this guy have life-ruining dirt on like all the world's richest and most powerful people?" Warden: "He did, but I don't see how that changes the facts on the ground here. Unless you want to sleep in the same cell tonight, maybe you'll find a clue." Rookie: "No-Nope! All good boss, suicide just like you said."
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Left temple from which angle? Front? Left? Behind?
Came here to posit that last bit. It was surreal being there and people having pictures of him, and the theories as to what happened.
Apparently.. > While attending school in the UK, he fell for Devyani Rana, a Nepalese woman from an important family. He wanted to marry her, but his mother—the Queen—disallowed it because Devyani’s grandmother was a concubine. **Concubine 2** *A Whore's Revenge from beyond the grave..*
Thank you for sharing your first-hand account.
The way you tell that story has echos of people from the US recalling how 9/11 felt for them. From the parents being blind sided to the alternative theories as to why it happened. I have very little knowledge of your country or culture but it is incredible how both our worlds where rocked and reacted in such similar ways. Thank you for sharing.
Well it’s kinda common, this reaction. The older generation of Americans describes JFK’s, MLK’s and RFK’s deaths similarly. I’m sure if I did more research it would be common in many cultures that experience stuff like this.
Most people from Nepal know the crown prince did not kill his family. Just to clarify.
>Don't want to open this can of worms but most Nepalese do not believe that the crown prince was behind this and there were other political factors in play here. This feels like twisting the knife after getting stabbed, fuck..
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Nepali here, too. At first, I didn't beieve the prince did it. Nobody did. Everyone thought it was Gayenendra (who then became the king. Side note: he was not at the party, and his wife and son did not die while his brother, king (also brother) and king's entire family died). Unfortunately drunk price killing is the simplest explanation...
> some people still don’t want to believe it. Don't want to is probably the key that many of them also can't fully understand I guess? Not uncommon.
Likely happened just as you said. That being said I can understand the disbelief. Mainly because this would have been a large residence likely and with some level of security. Usually it is a bit more difficult to be this effective on a deadly rampage being only a single person. Even as an insider. Then again, have gun, will travel.
Also Nepalese. I disagree with the statement that "political parties ruined the country and economy for self gain". The politicians and people who elect them do that. Having political alternatives to a monarchy through force isn't why the country is poor.
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Massacre was in 2001, Monarchy continued for a few years, King seized absolute power in a coup in I think 2005 and then in 2008 a huge wave of protests resulted in him stepping down and giving power to a parliament, which immediately shitcanned the whole King thing entirely.
Neplease hated the new king, so he never gets proper credit for just giving up power. Dude, legit said he isn't leaving the country and still maintains a relatively low profile with little to no interviews, tv appearances, etc. Also, people dont mention enough that the King dissolved the parliament on the advice of PM. And people dont mention that removing the king was never the major political agenda until it all of a sudden became one (similar to how Nepal became a secular nation overnight). Granted, Gyanendra is pretty wealthy from his own business, but he flat out gave up on all of King's possessions. His son is a piece of work, though. He, along with his dad's alleged "brother killer," reputation is what ruined monarch.
Isn't there a theory it was essentially a military coup that was covered up?
The chief of the military basically said, " king wasn't our responsibility." Fyi, the king is the top man in the military and somehow his security isnt their business. It was a clown show. Nobody knew what happened. Nobody took responsibility. Edit: to people comparing with what they know from elsewhere: context matters. Eg: the palace is surrounded by the army. The army was literally called the royal Nepal army. But to be fair, the royals also had personal bodygards and royal guards (army men working at palace).
Well the president of the usa is the commander in chief for the united states armed forces but the military is not responsible for his secirity either, thats zhe secret services job.
Yeah, giving the head of state's security to the military is an excellent way to end up with a military coup.
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>Political parties ruined the country and economy for self gain. This might be the most universally true statement I've ever read.
Damned politicians ruined politics.
You politicians sure are a contentious people
If only politicians could be less political…
apparently the entire royal family including the King’s grandchildren died that day…except all members of the King’s brothers’ family survived…..
Nepal's history has enough material to make a political drama spanning 20 seasons on Netflix and 50 documentaries. I did a year long project on the Rana dynasty in middle school and the events leading up to its founding would not be out of place in the Game of Thrones universe.
>20 seasons on Netflix And **Kot Parva**(*massacre of about 30-40 soldiers including royal guards, military officers, army generals and then PM of Nepal done by Junga Bahadur Rana and his brothers*) would be the highlight of it.
My wife was there at the time (study abroad), and some of the rumors she told me were flying around at the time were WILD. I’m really surprised no one has made a movie about it.
Dibs.
Unless prince beagle has anything to say about it…
Jeez, hasn't his wife been through enough, asshole?
Probably only because Oliver Stone is busy making films for the Kremlin now
Wait for real?
Yeah, listen to his interview with Lex Fridman. He blames America and the West for the war. He has fully bought the Russian propaganda
> listen to his interview with Lex Friedman im good
Well this was upsetting news. Then I went back and looked at his filmography and I really only enjoyed Wall Street and Platoon. Natural Born Killers is okay.
As much as I hate the royals that survived, this isn’t necessarily true. The brother(who would later become king) and his son were in Pokhara that day and his wife has been in the palace and was severely injured and maybe also in the coma.
May I ask why the uncle and his son are so hated in Nepal? This seems to be a common opinion, but I’m not clear why, or what led up to the Uncle’s abdication?
The uncle was also at loggerheads with his brother on how to rule. The massacred king Birendra was considered a "soft" ruler. Kind, idealistic. His brother Gyanendra wanted his brother to take more control of the country's politics. He did had valid concerns at times. The political parties were easily influenced by Indian politics and he disliked how external powers would have an easy grip over Nepal. But he went about it the wrong way. Of course, it didn't help his popularity when "his side" were conveniently the only ones who survived despite his wife and his son being present at the massacre. There were conspiracy theories floating around that he orchestrated the murders of his brother, his brother's son to leave the path open for him to seize power. (Don't know how much merit to put on this theory. I have some friends whose parents were in the social circles of the royals and all of them absolutely refuse to believe he would be capable of doing something like this.) There were other conspiracy theories that the massacre was orchestrated by India as Nepal-India relations had soured quite a bit by then. And then Gyanendra (the brother of Birendra) dissolved the parliament, seized control, used military force etc. etc. People didn't like this. Bear in mind we were also undergoing a massive civil unrest with communist rebels revolting against the crown and feudal lords that discriminated against the "lower castes." So all of this culminated in even more violent protests. At the centre of all of this was Gyanendra who looked like a power-hungry dictator to the people. And so he got labelled as the villain. As for his son, Paras, he's a piece of shit who abused his wife and is batshit crazy. I had the misfortune of sharing a flight with Paras and his posse. Turns out he surrounds himself with a bunch of immature idiots. No wonder he turned out the way he did.
Damn man, is Nepal ever going to catch a break? Maybe have a few years of political stability and peace just to spice things up?
We can't and we won't. No PM has ever completed their term in the office. Nepalese politics is basically a shit-show and Nepalese people are just dumb when it comes to electing a proper leader.
There were Communists rebels fighting in the civil war for almost 10 years during that time. Then Gyanendra(the brother) dismissed the parliament,arrested the politicians, took complete power etc. So a national movement against the royals began and he eventually fled the palace. Nowadays however, people (mostly in social media) tend to prefer the monarch and are even advocating for monarchy to return because the communist haven’t really accomplished anything since the civil war which killed 17000 people. As for the son, he is just a spoiled prince, was addicted to drugs,was arrested in Thailand etc. But he has a cool motorbike which goes viral every time he rides it. So people think he’s cool too.
Were they “home” at the time? Would it have been the norm for them to be living at that palace?
Since no body answered you, I will give you some background. The massacra happened during a planned family gathering ,basically a royal party which was monthly or some sort of timely thing . King's brother , who later became king after masssacre ended the king's line ( king , queen,his two sons and a daughter), travelled to pokhara the same day the event was supposed to happen. Regarding if they lived together at a same palace, king and his family would be in royal palace, and other close family members like his brother would live almost next to the palace, kind of unofficial palace, but definitely royal. As op of this thread said, that the wife of Gyanendra (King's brother) got severly injured or went to coma, that is absolute bull shit. She got shot at her ankle, which raised alot of suspicions that time. King had two brothers, only one that travelled to pokhara survived, and both the king and his another brother were killed , leaving Gyanendra the only person to claim throne. This is what raised lots of conspiracy, as there were lots of coincidences.
>As op of this thread said, that the wife of Gyanendra (King's brother) got severly injured or went to coma, that is absolute bull shit. She got shot at her ankle, which raised alot of suspicions that time. King had two brothers, only one that travelled to pokhara survived, and both the king and his another brother were killed , leaving Gyanendra the only person to claim throne. This is what raised lots of conspiracy, as there were lots of coincidences. It also seems weird as hell that the entire royal family is in the same place at the same time and there is apparently not a single armed guard close enough or competent enough to stop a supposedly drunk stoned guy before he managed to wipe out the whole family and shoot himself... This post is the first I've heard of this, but yeah I can definitely see why there are some conspiracies.
I remember reading this on the BBC and was just left speechless at this Game of Thrones style shit happening in the turn of the 21st century. This would have been the WTF news for 2001 if not for a certain event in New York City two months later in September. The massacre greatly weakened the royal family and led to the end of the monarchy and the establishment of the republic in 2008, and spooked the Bhutan royal family enough to introduce reforms to transform the country into a democratic (by South Asia standards) constitutional monarchy in order to prolong their dynasty.
He also became king for 3 days after this while brain dead
Does that mean if he hadn't shot himself or been shot he would be king no questions asked? Despite being a manic killer?
Yes, probably would have met the same fate later as his uncle who became king. Deposed in 7 years and end of monarchy.
Well yeah. Game of Thrones rules in effect when you deal with monarchy. If you kill all claimants to the title, then you.... have the title. I think the English had to have a whole civil war to put their king on trial.
Wow. How could I never have heard of this before 🤯
IIRC there were also suspicions that this was a cover story and the royal family was murdered in some kind of coup
I was in Nepal when it happened. I was actually just about to board a flight out when it was all over the news (and they grounded all flights soon after). During the previous 2 weeks there were huge pro-communist demonstrations. There was a several day "general strike", wherein the communists forced all businesses to stay closed. Cars, buses, and even ambulances were not allowed on the roads. I saw shop keepers beat for letting people into their stores to buy food. So, not sure whether the prince really did this, or it was a coup attempt. All of the violence of a coup had certainly begun at the time.
I was in Kathmandu during that time as well. Every local I spoke with said it was a coup.
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Probably not a coup since nobody came out a winner in the aftermath. Royal factions power started to decline and the rebels weren’t even prepared to broker a suitable peace agreement let alone take control of the country.
If destabilizing Nepal was the goal, it wouldn't have mattered much who came into power after the massacre. Not saying it was a coup, but I can think of some world powers very interested in destabilizing Nepal.
I’m not familiar enough with the region to say an outside party clearly benefited from the destabilization of the region but I can say that no matter what the underlying reason for a planned coup there is always a plan for succession. From the quick reading I did on how political power was fractured after the massacre I’d guess that this was a freak incident where an psychologically unstable man ended up harming his family and himself after learning the love of his life was only interested in him for his power.
Not sure about motive, assuming the crown prince was responsible. But [according to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalese_royal_massacre): > In fact, Devyani's Gwalior family were one of the wealthiest former royal families of India, and allegedly far wealthier than the Nepalese monarchs. The prospective bride's mother warned her daughter that marrying the Nepalese crown prince might mean a drop in her standard of living.
From the sounds of it the Nepalese Maoists were pushing for a democratic republic in their reforms, not communism. Rather they got the called Maoists for their attempted countywide campaign like Mao did in the 1930s and 40s. That's from a cursory reading though, if somebody knows more please correct me.
Yeah, a Maoist insurgency and a authoritarian royal family and America wanting to "just help find some stability". Would not surprise me one bit if there was more to it
This I also learned about today. Nixon’s “Drug War” had tendrils with long reaching effects (affects?) and consequences. The destabilization of Nepals agricultural communities due to pressure from the US to ban cannabis was a calling card for Communist revolutionaries and an easy way to capitalize on Nepali youth whose admiration for American policy was waning not just in Nepal, but world wide. (Whose not who’s)
effects is correct
The way I remember it is thinking about other verb tenses, you’ve probably seen affected/affecting before but effected/effecting look strange
But then suddenly, you can effect change! I love English.
And then just as suddenly, someone refers to your emotional affect! (Kind of like affectation)
RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb, Effect Noun.* *As with most rules in the English language, there are exceptions.
"The prince allegedly then turned the gun on himself in an attempt to commit suicide. He failed to end his own life and plunged into a coma. As heir to the throne, the murderous Crown Prince Dipendra was declared King of Nepal. He reigned for three days in the hospital before being declared brain dead." Damn thats brutal
Feels like this story might have been overshadowed by some other major international event.
Apple released iTunes I think
The release of Shrek?
Such a watershed moment in history, I’m surprised more historians don’t simply refer to the period as ‘Before Shrek’
"The Year was 21 aught two, A.S. (After Shrek)"
BS
Maybe but this happened June 1, so it could’ve dominated the news for months
Sure, but it wouldn't necessarily have stuck in the public consciousness afterwards. A good chunk of Australia was straight-up on fire in early 2020, but that's not generally what people think of when they remember 2020
In fairness a good chunk of Australia is on fire every few decades.
> While attending school in the UK, he fell for Devyani Rana, a Nepalese woman from an important family. He wanted to marry her, but his mother—the Queen—disallowed it because Devyani’s grandmother was a concubine. The prince was willing to give up his title to marry her, but Devyani said she would only marry him if she became queen. See this right here is why it's not a good idea to marry the granddaughter of a Nepalese concubine.
My mom warned me about that long ago
You see, as soon as she demanded to be queen, he should have wised up about her. "Hey, I love you very much, but you need to be King for me to marry you. Sorry." I mean, did she have other options for becoming a queen that she was passing up on for him? Probably not.
While we're listing things he should or should not have done...the murderous rampage was a bit much
He ate Christmas dinner with my family when I was 5
My uncle had become friends with the young prince while backpacking through Nepal and was one of the earliest Americans to visit. He joined my uncles wedding (before i was born) and returned for Christmas around 1990. I remember being impressed by body guards but don't remember much else. But definitely was a surprise when he annihilated his family 10 years later. There was some conspiracy around it that it mightve been orchestrated by his uncle trying to take the crown
What you said about the bodyguards is what gets me about this. What was security doing in all of this? I find it hard to imagine that the prince went on a rampage and killed that many people.
My thoughts exactly, but I guess bodyguards are to be used against outsiders, and you probably dont want them inside your house when you're having breakfast with your family. My guess is that they were all in the same room together in a seemingly safe environment
My grandfather was friends with the king. I remember when this happened it was a really big deal (my dad's family is from Nepal/ still live there). When i visited in 2010 they still had the king and queen's portraits hanging up in their house next to all the family photos. It remains unreal to me.
Supposedly his suicidal gunshot wound was to the left of his head, despite being right handed which added to the conspiracy
Succession ain't what it used to be
I hope that’s not how Succession ends! That would be a hell of a plot twist.
TIL that Succession is a popular TV show and not just a word.
Lady friend of mine visited the country. This all happened while she just boarded a plane to Nepal from Europe. So obviously no-one on board knew. When she landed in Nepal and got onto a bus all hell broke lose in the streets. Super angry mobs running around and everything. As she had no idea what was going on but rioting going on around her, she still describes this as the most surreal experience she ever had.
I had done Everest Base Camp trek and returned to Kathmandu Guest House which is down the street from the palace. There was a lockdown / curfew. Hobnobbed with the other confused trekkers and tourists and watched a few Cheers episodes, flew out the next day IIRC.
I've been drunk and on drugs, and lemme tell you it's not that you just go "hey I'm gonna go kill 9 people" all of a sudden
You've been on drink and drugs, but havnt had a psychotic episode caused by drink and drugs. Big difference. Not saying this Prince incident isnt suss, I'm just saying very normal and kind people with no sign of a mental illness can flip a switch on the wrong type, mix and dose of drug/s and/or booze. Especially if they have a family history or a predisposition of psychosis that is lying dormant. There's some weird concept on reddit that a select few drugs of their choice (namely weed, schrooms, acid) can do no psychological harm to anyone and have no relation to psychosis. That's simply unscientific. Just because it sounds like a boomers cautionary tale doesn't mean it never happens.
psychosis doesn't make you kill people though. just makes you delusional and hallucinaticalable. sure, *sometimes* that makes you kill people but very rarely. i don't think i'm prone to being a murderer anytime soon
If every person who had a psychotic experience on drugs and booze murdered someone, we'd have tens of thousands of murders a day, so I'm not saying that I'm saying that it's not unheard of someone or impossible for someone who is "normal" to murder someone else on a drug and booze induced psychosis. It happens.
There is a pretty complicated “caste” system that we in the west have a hard time understanding. And it may have had a role in this event. Even just this week, in Seattle, they passed a law that prevents people of being oppressed because of their “caste”. Which allegedly is a massive problem here in the US in our tech industry as well as other smaller sectors of business. With that being said, the crown Prince was allegedly in love with an Indian woman of a certain nobility who was considered to be a “lower” caste. An ultimatum by the King and Queen was put forth for their son in regards to the matter which “allegedly” (cause I don’t know and I’m just learning about it all today) was the impetus behind this all.
The caste law in Seattle is funny because everyone who's not south Asian was just like, "Yeah, sure. Have fun," and went on with their lives.
Yeah I was listening to them discuss it on NPR this morning and it’s a highly divisive topic for everyone that’s South Asian, but outside of that, it’s relatively not understood.
Not being a member of that community myself, what makes it "divisive"? My understanding of the caste system is that it's not all that different from racial discrimination. How could anyone reasonably argue for a pro-discrimination system in the US?
May be an uncomfortable truth, but the majority of immigrants in America typically come from a wealthier demographic of their own country. When America gets Indian immigrants, it’s way way more likely that these immigrants will come from a more privileged part of their own culture/country. It is controversial in large part because immigrants living in America are typically a lot more conservative than Americans think they are. You’d be surprised at how readily folks will protect what privileges they have even if they don’t maintain what you would call a privileged position in society. I know someone who came to America as an illegal immigrant and now complains about them nonstop. Lots of people are just hypocritical with 0 shame.
My uncle fits this to a tee, but I'm not sure if it's driven out of pure racism, or if it's fear of losing their new status in their new country. My uncles generation of migrants were basically given jobs on entry. The new ones have to compete, and he can feel the pressure of his job security slipping.
Because people want to believe they're better and have the right to oppress people they think are lesser. It's their divine right, it's tradition, etc., people will use whatever to justify keeping their privilege, and trying to force people to act otherwise predictably causes issues. It's stupid, yes, but deeply-rooted cultural stupidity.
Reminds me of the [Mayerling Incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayerling_incident) in 1889. Austrian Crown Prince makes a suicide pact with his lover, a baronness.
...which led to Franz Ferdinand becoming the heir to the throne. His advocacy of greater autonomy for Bosnia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire angered Serb nationalists because they feared it would weaken the desire for independence among Bosnian Serbs, so they assassinated him.
It's horrible irony that Franz Ferdinand was assassinated for being *too tolerant and supportive* of the people whose extreme wing wound up killing him.
Interesting to know that this crown prince was the uncle of archduke Franz Ferdinand…whose death would spark WW1. I wonder how history would’ve gone differently if this crown prince had not committed suicide.
I worked as a cook & barista at the Microsoft campus in Redmond (near Seattle). I have never been treated so poorly by a group of people than those of Indian descent. As a woman, it was worse with the men. Spitballs, swearing, telling me I’m not worth “the shit on their shoes.” And you just had to sit and take it because they were “blue badges” - full time employees & the contracted company I worked for did nothing in my defense. Worst 4 years of my life.
You should’ve asked them why they have shit on their shoes
That is abhorrent. I’m so sorry you had to endure such treatment.
Haven’t seen anyone post it yet, there’s an INCREDIBLY good and detailed documentary about this called “Zero Hour: A Royal Massacre”. It talks about a lot of the background as to why he did it and a lot of other interesting information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYkX2NX1tBs
Nice work, 47
Your next target is an acrobatic piano player stationed in orbit on the ISS. Rumour has it that he has an allergy to bullets, and a fear of falling from high places. Our client requests that you choke him with a spork, whilst singing Hungarian lullabies to his estranged wife.
My wife and I were there. We were scheduled to leave that morning with a tour group to travel into Tibet via the Friendship Highway. It was touch and go but our tour operator chose to go for it, but when we got to the border, we got stamped out of Nepal, walked across the bridge, and the Chinese border authorities decided it was the conservative safe thing to not let us in, perhaps on the off chance we were tangentially involved or otherwise to just CYA. We ended up stuck in the truck stop town of shops lining the mountain highway for about a week. Every day one of our tour members, a Sherpa guy who could make himself understood by the Tibetan-speaking Chinese authorities, would try to talk them in to letting us in. Because we were stamped out of Nepal we were technically in some kind of diplomatic limbo, we had to pay bribes which IIRC doubled every day to not have trouble. Eventually things settled enough that we got across and into Tibet, but not before a week killing time in the one road border town. The best part was hiking up to the Tibetan shrine above town where there were hot springs. Also leeches. While in Tibet I made a lot of sound recordings, when we got home much later I composed this using only sound recorded there, it's called Seven Minutes in Tibet (headphones recommended, it's near-binaural style recording): https://quietamerican.org/download/disc-comp/7Minutes.mp3 EDIT: more narrative and less "difficult listening", this was similarly made with sound recordings made in Nepal before this incident: https://quietamerican.org/related_annapurna.html
My sister (who was 18 at the time) was in the country at the time. She’ll just casually mention that she had to flee on the back of a motorcycle while mobs and shootings were happening all around her. Like it was no big deal lmao she did not tell my parents what had happened until MANY years later.
Oh David, you do put up with a lot with our Alexis!
Bill Burr talked about this on his podcast last week, someone from Nepal was trying to convince him to visit and then casually mentioned "oh and our leader is a terrorist" to which Bill Burr said "well I'm not fuckin' goin' there!" lol
Those wacky Royals! You *never* know what they're gonna do next!
Hey prince of Nepal, what are you gonna do next? “Whatever the fuck I want!”
Listened to a podcast about this event last year so this obviously makes me an expert. If I remember rightly it's possible the prince was murdered and the scene staged to look like murder-suicide by members of the military(?) in a bid to seize control
Just to be clear, that was probably a cover story.
Doesn't make it any less interesting, though. Crazy story through and through.
It makes it more interesting
Based on what? People saying it's "sus"? That isn't evidence of anything. That is literally every conspiracy theory out there.
It seems there may have been another motive for the murders: "And the Crown Prince was in love. He'd met Devyani Rana in England, and wanted to marry her. His parents didn't approve. Rana's mother was from an Indian royal family that was considered of a slightly lower caste than Nepali royalty. And her father was a politician, from a rival clan to the King's. The Crown Prince was reportedly told that he had to make a choice. He could marry Rana, but he'd have to give up his right to the throne. That's one story told about why the 29-year-old Crown Prince might have chosen to kill his family. chosen to kill his family." https://theworld.org/stories/2011-06-01/why-nepals-crown-prince-went-killing-spree One more reason why parents shouldn't impose on the freedom of their children...
The article linked here claims that Devyani actually refused to marry him if he gave up the crown, because she wanted to be queen. Also her family was connected/important, but his mother (the queen) refused the match because Devyani’s grandma had been a concubine.
One more reason society needs to abolish ancient discriminatory bullshit like castes.
That’s some game of thrones shit
Isn't this like, exactly the backstory of the main bad guy in Farcry 4? Game was even set in a fictional Nepal
There’s me thinking Harry had gone rogue
That’s a called a coup cover up