The former Nepalese royal family may never have thought that the greatest threat to the royal family was inside the palace. According to the British "Daily Star" reported on June 1, 21 years ago, Crown Prince Dipendra, the heir to the Nepalese throne, shot and bloodied the entire royal family, nine members of the royal family, including his parents and younger siblings, died at his hands, and four others were slightly injured.
(From left to right: King Birendra, Queen Aisivaya, Prince Nilajan, Princess Sruti Dipendra and Crown Prince Dipendra)
Deependra, who studied at Eton College, fell in love with Devyani Rana, a beautiful woman from Nepal, when he was studying in England, and then proposed to her.
However, Queen Aisivaya firmly disagreed with the marriage, because although Devyani was from a famous family, her grandmother was only a concubine, and the social status of the two families was seriously mismatched.
Dipendra was forced to negotiate with Devyani to give up his title and marry her, but Devyani refused, saying that she could only marry Dipendra if she became queen.
in Devjani
The 29-year-old Dipendra was estranged from her parents, King Bilandra and Queen Aisivaya. On 1 June 2001, Dipendra attended a gathering at the Kathmandu Palace as usual, and King Bilandra saw that he was a little rude to the guests when he drank too much and ordered him to leave.
Dipendra returned to his room under the escort of his brother Prince Nilajan and his cousin Prince Pallas, but he was already completely enraged.
For the next hour, he changed into a camouflage suit and was fully armed, then returned to the royal restaurant and fired a shot at the ceiling, attracting everyone's attention before shooting at everyone.
(Funeral of Queen Aisyvaya)
Dipendra then pointed his gun at himself and attempted suicide, but was unable to end his life on the spot and fell into a coma. As the heir to the throne, Dipendra was declared king of Nepal even after killing his entire family, but after three days of hospitalization, he died of ineffective rescue.
In order to avoid the attention of the media, Dipendra insisted on marrying the beautiful Devyani immediately fled to India, and later married Yuvaraja Aisyvaya Singh, who was also a nobleman.
Dipendra's uncle, Prince Gyanendra, succeeded to the throne, and he was not in the palace at the time of the bloody crime, so he was fortunate enough to escape the disaster.
The royal tragedy left deep wounds on Nepalese. King Birendra and Crown Prince Dipendra were once very respected by nepalese, so after the incident many people did not believe that Dipendra would kill their parents, and even suspected that Prince Gyanendra was the culprit of this tragedy, because he could inherit the throne.
But the investigation team at the time reported that evidence taken from more than 100 people, including witnesses, palace officials, guards and staff, confirmed that Dipendra was indeed the killer.
An aide close to Dipendra when he was prince questioned the official report and insisted that Dipendra could abdicate the throne for love, but he would never do such a thing.
A book later published in Nepal called Raktakunda, which tells the story of the royal bloodshed, examines the event from the perspective of a surviving witness, Empress Ratna's personal maid.
The authors said two men disguised as Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed members of the royal family and accused the Nepalese royal family of covering up many other events, including claims that former King Mahendra committed suicide.
(Prince Gyanendra)
However, we can't know which is right or wrong, but King Gyanendra was eventually ousted. In 2008, Nepal announced the abolition of the monarchy and King Gyanendra became Nepal's last monarch.
Miraculously, a few years before the bloodbath, there was a prophecy that the Nepalese royal family would only last until the 20th generation. Coincidentally, King Gyanendra happened to be the 20th generation.
Image source: Daily Star, Bing