The Palace Massacre

On June 1, 2001, nine members of the Nepalese royal family were massacred in Kathmandu’s Narayanhiti Palace. The tragedy changed the course of Nepali history.

The Narayanhiti Palace was the residence of Nepal’s royal family for more than a century. It was first home to the descendants of Jung Bahadur Rana, then to members of the Shah dynasty, King Birendra included. From Durbar Marg, where protests ended in a hail of bullets on April 6, 1990, the palace is eye-catching. At its center rises a large white overlook with a roof resembling the temples of Kathmandu’s Durbar Square. Just beyond it stands a tall white pillar, crowned by a spire resembling that of the stupa at Swayambhunath. The palace itself is a soft-toned red color, enclosed by a metal gate. On the palace grounds are lawns of green grass and immaculately manicured shrubs. There is the Narayan temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, for which it and the palace were named, and there is a hiti, a legendary waterspout, adorned with stone engravings of Vishnu, overgrown with forbs and mosses. The interior of the palace is in the Late Victorian style. There are chandeliers and full-size taxidermy of Bengal tigers, poised to attack and snarling to reveal their massive fangs. There are Bengal tiger rugs, along with those of Himalayan brown bears. There are colorful paintings of Hindu deities on the walls, and loveseats fashioned from silver and gold. There are the crowns of kings on display, cordoned off in glass…