If the June 1 blood bath that resulted in the deaths of many members of Nepal's royal family was not enough for a tragedy, we also have a Maoist insurgency and fears of two giant neighbors against the backdrop of palace intrigues.
The Maoists control almost half of Nepal's 75 districts. The late King Birendra was in balancing the interests of his tiny state against the competing security and power calculations of China and India. And the power struggle between Nepal's Shah and Rana families is the stuff of legend.
Nepal is the world's only Hindu state. India is the world's most populous Hindu country. Nepal's king is believed to be a reincarnation of Lord Vishnu, one of the three most important deities in the pantheon of Hindu gods. If India is among the poorer counties of the world, Nepal is among the poorest. But where the billion strong Republic of India is a peninsular subcontinent unto itself, Nepal, with 22 million people, is a landlocked hermit kingdom. And where India is a well-established democracy with a thriving multiparty system, Nepal's democracy is still in an experimental stage.