why some nepalis want the king back

after years of dysfunction, some nepalis are looking backward. not out of loyalty, but frustration.

Last year I wrote this story. It was about the royal massacre in Nepal back in 2001. Crown Prince Dipendra allegedly killed his whole family. His father the king, his mother the queen, his brother, and several other royals, then shot himself.

Dipendra had wanted to marry someone his parents didn’t approve of. One night, drunk and furious, he snapped.

He didn’t die right away. He fell into a coma. And while he lay there unconscious, they actually declared him king.

He died three days later.

King Birendra (center left) with Queen Aishwarya and their children in the 1990s. Nearly the entire family was killed in the 2001 royal massacre, allegedly by Crown Prince Dipendra (far left).

I’d been to Nepal before. And when I came across the story, it stuck with me, not because it was some grand metaphor, but because it was bizarre.

The idea that a crown prince could wipe out his entire family, supposedly over a relationship?

At the time, I thought it was just a piece of history. A violent footnote. Something the country had moved on from.

But over the past few months, people are on the streets of Kathmandu. Chanting for the return of the monarchy, asking for the king to save the country.

Which made me ask, why?

Why are people calling for the return of something that ended nearly two decades ago?

Has democracy really failed that badly? Has the system stayed broken for so long that even the old one looks better?

That’s what this article is about.