Dipendra

The Tragedy of Dipendra, Prince of Nepal

On Friday, 1st June 2001, most of the royal family of Nepal was massacred. About a dozen royals, including the king and queen, were killed, presumably by the crown prince, Dipendra. Dipendra himself, having been injured in the bloodbath, soon also died, with his disliked uncle assuming the throne.

Shakespeare, if he were around today, would have had a field day with this. The makings of a masterpiece. There is still much debate, however, over what really took place that fateful Friday evening, despite investigations having been completed. Much of the event has been kept a mystery, so that the public, in the comfort of their homes, may imagine, discuss and re-enact on their own what they think really happened. I shall now, on my part, illustrate here what might have happened, on 1st June 2001:

Royal Nepalese palace.

Enter DIPENDRA.

DIPENDRA:

Back in England, yeah, when I was in Eton, we did this book, see. Some Shakespeare thing. The guy was so cool, man. Just like me. So I try to emulate the guy back here see, I always wear black and all. But it's no use, everything's so boring here, no one's got a story. Dad hasn't died yet, Uncle's got no vicious plans, my mom's not a slut. I even tried to get my girl, yeah, to kill herself, you know, out of love for me, yeah? She wouldn't! There's just no damn story, man. I need my chance to shine, yeah, I gotta do something. So I went out and got this uzi yeah, I figure I'll have to just do everything myself. I'll go kill off everyone.

Enter the KING, QUEEN, and OTHER PALACE OFFICIALS.

QUEEN:

Dipendra! My son, what are you doing with that gun?
You could hurt someone with that.

DIPENDRA:

Ahhh, don't worry, mom,
guns don't kill people.

MACHINE-GUN:

Baaahhhhhaaaahhhhhaaaahhhhhboomboom, boom boomboom(or whatever sound a machine-gun 'accidentally' makes.)

[EVERYONE dies.]

Incidentally, Crown Prince Dipendra committed fratricide, homicide, matricide, patricide, and regicide almost simultaneously before apparently attempting suicide with the same sub-machine gun that he used to slaughter his family.

Among the dead are his father, King Birendra; his mother, Queen Aiswarya; his brother, Prince Nirajan; his sister, Princess Shruti, and five guests of the royal family.

Dipendra died after spending a few days in a coma following his suicide attempt. Had he survived, he would have become King of Nepal, despite having assassinated the previous king. The official word from representatives of the Nepalese royal family was that the massacre was "an accident." Dipendra's uncle became king upon his death.

2002.12.08@16:48 strawberry says I believe that Dipendra was actually king (since the former king was now dead... the whole "the king is dead, long live the (new) king!" thing) for the day or two he lay in the hospital before he died. Then he died and the new (current) king (Birendra's uncle) became king. No one much likes the new king and his son Paras (the new crown prince - heir to the throne) is pretty much loathed.

2002.12.10@16:53 strawberry says by the way,the new king is King Gyanendra. The reason people hate his son?... the BBC.com page at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1371524.stm sums it up nicely...