KATHMANDU, NEPAL, May 4, 2009:
When King Gyanendra’s army-backed reign ended three years ago followed by the abolition of monarchy in the world’s only Hindu kingdom, it did not come as a surprise to the Himalayan nation’s devout Hindus. “It was on the charts,” says Upendra Dahal, a Brahmin priest who also dabbles in astrology at the revered Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu. “The Gods were against him and sent him omens.”
There were several omens. An annual procession during which the Kumari was disrupted after an axle broke; a second chariot procession for Rato Machhindranath, God of rains, was halted; a famous deity, Bhimsen, began to sweat in a Kathmandu temple. The people of Nepal took these signs to heart.
Now a year after the exit of the king and his former arch enemies, the Maoist guerrillas, there are fresh divine rumblings. On Sunday, the procession of Rato Machhindranath came to a standstill once again as the immense chariot almost keeled over.
As the spectre of a no-trust vote and a humiliating defeat hangs over the Maoist government, people are also talking of the former rebels’ professed disdain for religion.
In the Sunsari district in southern Nepal, which was hit by major floods last year, discontent is visible. “The prime minister took the oath of office in the name of people and not God,” a villager said. “It was his disbelief that brought about the flood.”
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