[Part 1]: An ambassador's personal experience: The truth about the murder of the Nepali Royal Massacre

Originally published in April 27, 2015. Author: Zeng Xuyong, former Chinese Ambassador to Nepal (1998-2001)

On the evening of June 1, 2001, a royal blood case that shocked the world took place in Nepal. Nine members of the royal family including King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, Prince Nirajan, Princess Shruti were brutally murdered. The murderer was the king's eldest son, Crown Prince Dipendra!

This incident "rewrote" the history of the kingdom of Nepal, leading to the rapid collapse of the Nepal Shah dynasty and monarchy with a history of more than 200 years. A full 11 years have passed, and this suspicious and confusing royal family annihilation tragedy is still lingering in the hearts of Nepali people.

The author, who was the Chinese ambassador to Nepal at the time, experienced this tragedy firsthand and would like to describe the situation and what he saw and heard about the tragedy response to the situation at that time.

In the early morning, I learned of the shocking massacre

Immediately verified the news reports and reporting back to China

In the early morning of June 2, 2001, a Nepali friend informed our embassy that there was a terrible massacre in the palace last night. Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed several members of the royal family including King Birendra. I was very shocked when I heard the news on the phone, and immediately realized that this was a major emergency. The duty of the embassy is to verify the news and situation as soon as possible and report it our country.

I immediately convened the political counselor, military attaché, director of the research office, etc., and asked them to try to find out the situation through their friends, and to continuously follow the relevant news reports from the BBC, CNN and other foreign media and Nepali radio and television.

The attaché of the embassy called the two leaders of the Nepali military who were familiar with them, but they were both told that they were not at home. This confirms from the side that something must have happened. Soon, BBC was the first to publicly report the news of the palace tragedy in Nepal. I immediately got on the phone with (Kriti Nidhi) Bista, an old friend and former Prime Minister of Nepal (Bista had been appointed Prime Minister by the King many times and had close ties to the Royal Palace.

The day before, on the night of June 1, when the massacre at the palace took place, I had been dining with his family at the embassy. The king, queen and members of the royal family were shot and taken to the army hospital, where they died, Bista confirmed. I urgently reported this news back to China.

From foreign reports, Nepali newspapers and various sources, the general situation of the palace tragedy had gradually become clear: because the king and queen did not agree to the marriage of Crown Prince Dipendra and his long-loved girlfriend Devyani, on June 1st at a routine family dinner at the royal palace in the evening, Dipendra shot King Birendra and other members of the royal family while drunk, and then shot himself. Prince Gyanendra, the king's second brother, was not in the capital that night and was on his way back to Kathmandu from the western city of Pokhara after the tragedy. As the facts of the case became clearer, I promptly reported the situation to China after further verification.

Attending the King's Farewell

The funeral by thousands of people is touching

At 6 o'clock in the morning, Nepal TV stopped the normal program transmission, but kept playing the heartbreaking mournful music and the chorus of the three priests. It was very sad, but there was no relevant news to report. Most of Nepali TV stations broadcasted in Nepali, and only I could understand Nepali language in the embassy, so I kept watching Nepali TV stations in my office.

At 9 a.m., Nepal TV broadcasted an urgent notice from the Nepal Council of State¹, requesting members of the council to immediately go to the office building of the Council of State for a meeting. The State Council is composed of senior officials such as the Prime Minister, the Speaker, and the Army Chief of Staff. It is a constitutional body responsible for handling major affairs such as the succession of the throne. Usually, there is basically no activity. Now an emergency meeting was being held suddenly, which was obviously related to the murder of the royal family.

That day, the second thing to deal with urgently was to keep abreast of the funeral arrangements of the Nepali side, especially whether foreign leaders will be invited to attend or not. In the early 1990s, when I was the director of the Indian Division of the Asian Department of the (Chinese) Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after the assassination of Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi, I urgently accompanied the special envoy of State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wu Xueqian to attend the funeral in India, and served as a staff member.

This experience reminded me to pay attention to this matter, because it is a major issue involving timely decision-making by the central government, and it is also a matter of urgent domestic concern. However, in the morning, I contacted the competent officials of the Nepali Ministry of Foreign Affairs by phone many times, and they were all told that the Ministry of Home Affairs of Nepal is responsible for the arrangements for the funeral of the king, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not aware of the situation at present.

It was not until 1:30 noon that Rayamajhi, chairman of the Nepali State Council, announced on the TV: King Birendra and other 8 people died at 9:15 pm on June 1; according to the constitutional procedure, Crown Prince Dipendra would be the new king, but given that Dipendra was still in a coma, Prince Gyanendra became the temporary regent; later that day, the funeral of King Birendra and other members of the royal family would be held. Then, Nepal TV broadcasted an emergency notice from the Ministry of Home Affairs of Nepal, saying that at 2:30 p.m., the farewell ceremony of King and Queen will be held at the Army Hospital. Senior officials of the Nepali government and foreign envoys in Nepal were invited to attend, however foreign leaders were not invited to attend. I immediately reported the relevant information back to China.

Nepali side did not have enough time to send a written note to foreign missions in Nepal, the notice issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs of Nepal through television should be regarded as an official notification from the Nepali government. The atmosphere in Kathmandu was tense at that time. Considering the close and friendly relationship between China and Nepal, I decided to go to the Army Hospital with my wife to attend the farewell ceremony of the King and Queen.

At 2:30 pm, my wife and I arrived at the Army Hospital by car. At this time, the main building of the hospital was already full of senior Nepali military and political officials.

After I got out of the car, I shook hands with some familiar cabinet ministers and others. Except for expressing shock and grief, most of them looked at each other silently. Two tents were temporarily set up in the courtyard of the main hospital building, and the bodies of King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya were parked in the two tents respectively. After all the civil and military officials arrived, at about 3 o'clock, the military band played mournful music, and the farewell ceremony for the remains began.

The Prime Minister, the Speaker, the Chairman of the Council of State, the former Prime Minister, and Ministers slowly walked to the two tents in turn. My wife and I were also arranged by the protocol officer of the Nepali side and slowly moved forward after the cabinet ministers, saying goodbye to the queen and the king successively. In accordance with Nepali etiquette, we presented a bouquet of flowers to the body, folded our hands and bowed.

The king lay in the green leaves and flowers with a peaceful face, while the queen's whole body and left face were covered with flowers (reportedly, the queen was shot in the head and the left face was severely disfigured), only the right face and her right eye could be seen. We were very saddened by this situation, with our eyes wide open in horror. Just three months ago, we accompanied the king and queen to visit China from Hainan to Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai for seven consecutive days. We also attended the dinner held by the king and queen at the palace for Premier Zhu Rongji half a month ago. Their voices and smiles surfaced in front of me, but now they are the realm of yin and yang. I could not help but feel heavy and emotional.

Since the Nepali side did not invite foreign embassies to attend the cremation ceremony held in front of the Pashupati temple, we drove back to the embassy. After returning to the Embassy, I turned on the TV to watch the live broadcast of the funeral and cremation ceremony for King Birendra.

At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the funeral procession departed from the Army Hospital, and tens of thousands of members of the royal family, military and political officials, and people from all walks of life attended the funeral. In front of the funeral procession were honor guards, military bands and palace guards, etc., followed by Brahmin priests in white robes carrying King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, Prince Nirajan, Princess Shruti and Princess Jayanti's bodies. The body was wrapped in yellow satin and covered with flowers. The funeral procession passed through several main streets in the city, and it stretched for several miles. Along the way, hundreds of thousands of Kathmandu citizens stood by the streets, balconies and windows. When the funeral procession came, many people threw flowers on the coffin. The spectacle was touching, and the mournful music played by the band made people sigh for the tragic end of the king. When the slow-moving funeral procession reached the Hindu holy temple Pashupatinath Temple in the east of the city, night had fallen. In front of the temple, the five cremation platforms by the Bagmati River were covered with flower ribbons, and the funeral officials stood on the steps by the river.

Brahmins dressed in white carried the remains of the king, queen and others, circled the cremation table three times, and then placed the remains on the cremation table. At 9:50 pm, the cremation ceremony began.

A male royal, holding torches in both hands, circled the cremation table three times and said prayers, then placed the torches on the neck of the body.

At this time, the band sang the Nepali national anthem, the crowd stood still, the military and police officers raised their hands, and the soldiers fired their guns to the sky. The flames on the five cremation platforms were raging, and the banks of the Bagmati River in front of the temple glowed red. At this time, the salute was fired. The 56 salutes representing the 56 years of Birendra's life were fired every minute, and the heavy sound of the cannon resounded through the night sky of Kathmandu until midnight.

On the same day, in addition to reporting back to China the situation of the king's funeral and the preliminary reactions of all parties to the tragedy at the palace, I also suggested sending a telegram of condolences to the Nepali side in the name of our country's leaders.

The truth about the royal murders revealed

The scene of the crime scene is reproduced

After the royal massacre, the media gradually reported the inside story disclosed by some witnesses. After Gyanendra ascended the throne on June 4 (due to the death of Crown Prince Dipendra, the king's second brother, Prince Gyanendra, succeeded to the throne) immediately ordered the establishment of an investigation committee. The committee conducted a crime scene investigation and interviewed survivors who attended the royal party that night (including the wounded in the hospital), as well as the receptionists, guards, doctors and other related personnel.

In mid-June, the Nepali government released the full text of the investigation report (including transcripts of interviews with dozens of people). The author carefully read the dozens of pages of the investigation report. According to the investigation report and various media disclosures, the reasons for the royal murder and the scene of the crime that night are roughly as follows.

The royal massacre case stemmed from the sharp conflict between the king and queen and Crown Prince Dipendra over marriage. Dipendra had been in a relationship with his beautiful girlfriend, Devyani, for over a decade. But Devyani's family had deep roots in India. Her mother was originally a royal palace noble in Madhya Pradesh, India; her uncle Sindia was one of the leaders of the main opposition parties in India at that time, and her aunt was a cabinet minister in the BJP government. Although India and Nepal have had close relations for a long time, various contradictions and conflicts have continued, and anti-India sentiment in Nepal is very serious. Nepal's royal palace was reluctant to marry a future queen of Indian descent. Devyani's Indian family background became a political obstacle to her union with the crown prince. Secondly, Devyani's father, Pashupati Rana, is the most prominent member of the Nepali Rana family, and a classmate of Birendra when he studied in the UK. He was appointed by the king as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance (During Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping's visit to Nepal in 1978, he accompanied Deng Xiaoping during his visit as an accompanying minister; the author maintained friendly exchanges with him during his tenure as ambassador) and had a good relationship with the king. However, he and Queen Aishwarya belong to two opposing branches of the Rana family. The queen does not want Devyani, who belongs to the opposing family, to become the future queen of Nepal. In order to break up the lovers, Queen Aishwarya did everything possible, and found a girl named Supriya Shah for the crown prince. This girl who belongs to the royal family is beautiful and dignified, and won the queen's appreciation. But the crown prince did not like the girl chosen by his mother, let alone marry her. The crown prince was very distressed at the queen's objection to his marriage to Devyani, leading to his resentment.

It is said that four days before the royal massacre, the king and queen issued an "ultimatum" to Dipendra, telling him that he had only two options: one was to marry the girl chosen by the queen, and at the same time allow him to keep his girlfriend Devyani and maintain a relationship so that he can continue to be the heir to the throne; The second is if he insists on marrying Devyani, then the crown prince must be relinquished and his younger brother, Prince Nirajan, will inherit the throne. Dipendra's love for Devyani reached the point where it was difficult to change his mind. Although Devyani loved him too, but she comes from a well-known family and insisted on marrying him properly, rather than being his mistress. Thus Dipendra was forced to the corner, and he was disheartened and developed the terrible thought. He had told friends that he would have a showdown with his mother before his 30th birthday (June 27).

The Royal Family dinner at the Palace on the evening of June 1 has been a monthly gathering of members of the Palace for many years. The party was held in the great drawing room within the Royal Garden. Before the dinner, everyone was waiting in a marble room next to them, drinking and chatting. Younger royals usually arrive earlier. That night, Crown Prince Dipendra arrived after 7 o'clock, chatting and drinking with his cousin of the same generation. He drank two glasses of strong whisky. At about 8 o'clock, the king and queen also arrived one after another. At about 9 o'clock, a drunk Dipendra left the party's living room and walked across the garden to his residence, a small two-story building next to the garden. He smoked cocaine-laced cigarettes, spoke on the phone for a few minutes with his lover, Devyani, before changing into a camouflage/military suit. When he appeared in the hall in uniform, he was seen holding the brim of his hat so low that it almost covered his face, carrying a UZI submachine gun and an M-16 automatic rifle. He strode into an adjacent room, where his father, King Birendra, was sitting. He raised the gun and shot at his father. Birendra was shot in the neck and abdomen, bleeding from the neck and a look of extreme surprise on his face. Immediately afterwards, Dipendra fired at the others, and one member of the royal family fell to the ground. Because it happened so suddenly, people didn't have time to react, and everyone stared blankly at Dipendra firing his guns. During the whole process, Dipendra didn't show any expression on his face, didn't say a word, just shot aimlessly. Later, Dipendra, seemingly unable to control the grab in his hand, started strafing into the air, with bullets hitting the ceiling and some debris hitting the carpet.

The strafing finally came to an end, and Dipendra turned and walked towards the garden. Possibly trying to dissuade him, his mother Queen Aishwarya, and her younger brother Prince Nirajan chased after him but were also shot and killed. The Queen was shot in the forehead. Later, Dipendra returned to the banquet hall. His third uncle, Prince Dhirendra, tried to dissuade him, begging him to "put the gun down," but Dipendra didn't stop shooting. After Dhirendra was shot in the chest and fell to the ground, the crown prince's aunt and cousin went forward to help the injured Dhirendra but they were also hit by bullets in their arms and shoulders and could not move. Dipendra also fired automatic rifles at Princess Shruti and Princess Sarda (sister of Birendra) who were beside King Birendra. Also injured in the bloodshed was Gyanendra's wife (Queen Aishwarya's sister), who was shot in the lung and pierced in the ribs. She recovered after nearly a month of treatment. On June 4, the night of the coronation of the new king, Gyanendra, Komal was crowned queen.

Dramatic in the bloodshed is that Prince Gyanendra's son Paras (who became crown prince after Gyanendra's succession) miraculously escaped Dipendra's shooting and survived. After Dipendra shot and killed multiple people, Paras had let several terrified royal women hide under a table next to him, according to a later investigation.

After Dipendra entered the banquet hall for the second time, he once pointed the gun at Paras, and Paras begged him not to shoot. Dipendra actually walked away slowly, without shooting him and the royal daughter-in-law hiding beside him. The whole shooting process lasted for several minutes. The king and other 8 members of the royal family were killed on the spot. Prince Dhirendra was seriously injured and died a few days later, and many other members of the royal family were injured. Dipendra ended up shooting himself in the head with a gun on the bridge by the river in the garden.

According to the traditional practice of the royal palace, the royal family holds a family gathering on Friday night in the first week of each month. Apart from the royal family members, only a few ushers are present, and all the guards, including the personal guards of the king and queen, are not present on site. The guards on duty in the palace were also dozens of meters away from the banquet hall. They cannot enter without an order. This is why the crown prince shot and killed wildly in the banquet hall and no one was present to stop it.

Later, Prince Direndra's son-in-law, Shahi, was injured but jumped out of the window to find the guards for help. When the guards learned that it was too late, that an irreversible tragedy had occurred, and that the scene was horrific, all they could do was to rush all the injured to the hospital.

After the royal massacre, Crown Prince Dipendra's girlfriend, Devyani, quickly flew out of Kathmandu to India for safety reasons. She is said to have been sedated and bedridden for several days due to grief and fear before moving to London to join her sister. The investigative committee had asked her to return to testify, but was refused. In 2011, she married Kunwar Aishwarya Singh, the grandson of an Indian cabinet minister. Due to her special relationship with the murderer of the Nepali royal family, her marriage attracted media attention and received extensive coverage.

Many Nepali people still do not believe that the royal family annihilation was done by the crown prince, thinking that the case is full of doubts and there must be a big conspiracy behind it. In addition to a suspicion pointing to Gyanendra, there is also a suspicion that a big country does not like King Birendra's "pro-China" policy, so it took advantage of the internal conflicts of the royal family to carefully plan the royal family's murder. But all of this is just speculation without any proof. Official investigative reports and all eyewitnesses have proven that Crown Prince Dipendra was responsible for the bloodshed.

In May 2008, after Nepal's Constituent Assembly decided to abolish the monarchy and implement a republic, the then Prime Minister of the Cabinet stated that he would re-investigate the murder of the royal family, but nothing has been done since then. The author believes that if there is really a shocking conspiracy behind the murder of the Nepali royal family that happened 10 years ago, unless the insider or the person concerned comes up with credible evidence to disclose it, it will remain a mystery for eternity.

The original article link can be accessed here.

Source: Foreign Affairs of the Shandong Province People’s Political Consultative Conference.

1. The Chinese word for this is 尼泊尔国务委员会 (Níbó'ěr guówù wěiyuánhuì) which in translation is Council of State. Not sure if this is the correct translation word or that in use during the period. Looking for suggestions on it.