NE - Farmer wants ousted Nepal king’s cash cows

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*Farmer wants ousted Nepal king's cash cows*

By Sudeshna Sarkar

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/farmer-wants-ousted-nepal-kings-cas\

h-cows_10060539.html

 

Kathmandu, June 15 (IANS) Even after losing his crown and being turned out

of the palace, Nepal's dethroned king Gyanendra continues to face demands

for more. Now, a Nepali farmer is laying claim to the dozens of cows herded

in the former Narayanhity royal palace, saying they were promised to him.

 

Less than two weeks of being officially proclaimed a republic, Nepal is

discovering new things about the former palace that was once prohibited land

for the government, let alone common people.

 

The secretive walls were found to enclose a hidden underground tunnel and a

91-year-old woman forgotten by the world and kept hidden from its eyes even

since she became the mistress of the deposed king's grandfather Tribhuvan.

 

Now farmer Gokul Karki says the sprawling pink palace, famed for its

priceless statues and chandeliers, has about 80 cows tethered on its

premises that rightfully belonged to a scion of Nepal's aristocracy, a man

called Akhanda Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana.

 

Karki claims Rana kept the flock on his own land in the Budanilkantha area,

famed for its temple of a Hindu god that was shunned by the former kings due

to a myth that to gaze upon the face of the deity would bring disaster on

the dynasty.

 

After Rana fell ill and could not tend the flock, Karki says he was promised

the lot but was given only one while the rest were driven off to

Narayanhity.

 

" The cows that were promised to me were taken to the palace due to a

conspiracy, " Karki told Nepal's official media Sunday. Karki says Rana's

cows are easily identifiable by the long iron chains tied round their necks

that weigh nearly three kg. Though the farmer took his grievance to the

council of royal advisors - a body that was dissolved after the fall of king

Gyanendra's government in 2006 - he did not get any redress.

 

The cows are said to have cost the former palace a lot of money every year.

But though a palace official tried to send them out of the palace, king

Gyanendra is said to have opposed the move, saying it would be a sin. Till

the end of the king's rule two years ago, Nepal was a Hindu kingdom where

the cow, the national animal, was regarded as a holy animal and the

slaughter of cows was banned. However, it remains to be seen if Karki will

get his cows, now that democracy has been restored in Nepal and monarchy

abolished.

 

The royal palace has also become a national museum from Sunday, open to the

public.

 

Earlier, another farmer claimed his horse was taken away by the Maoists. The

man from northern Nepal said he came across a photograph in a magazine which

showed Maoist chief Prachanda on its cover. Prachanda was seated on a

majestic white horse that he used during his days as an underground

guerrilla to roam remote villages where roads and transport did not exist.

The farmer claimed that horse was his. However, it was not known if the

farmer was reunited with his horse.

 

 

--

Lucia de Vries

Freelance Journalist

Bagdol, Patan, Nepal

Wijk 4-47, 8321 GE Urk, Holland