Tribhuvan: Fractured legacy

Kathmandu, Feb. 18 (PTI): A 91-year-old woman, who is believed to be the mistress of Nepal’s late King Tribhuvan, has been living in isolation for 50 years in a guarded house in the royal palace compound.

The woman, who belongs to the Tamang caste, is not allowed to come out of the white house inside the Narayanhitya Palace complex where King Gyanendra, Tribhuvan’s grandson, lives, state-run Nepali language daily Gorkhapatra reported today.

Quoting palace staff, the paper said the woman has been kept in the small and badly maintained house since the death of the monarch in 1955.

It added that the woman could not get “recognition” as a member of the royal family as she belongs to a “lower caste”.

The old lady has been given the title “Jijyu Mumajyu Ranisaheb” or “grand mother queen” by the palace but denied the “Shree Panch” that is reserved for royal family members. No one is allowed to go inside the house or see her, the palace staff said.

Kathmandu strike

Schools closed, garbage piled up on the streets and many buses stopped running in Kathmandu today because of a fuel shortage due to a general strike called by ethnic minorities demanding more rights.