Contemporary · South Asia · Politics

2001

Nepal royal massacre

June 1, 2001

Crown Prince Dipendra, reportedly drunk and furious over a forbidden marriage, walked into a family billiard room at the Narayanhiti Palace with assault rifles and killed his father, mother, and seven other royals before turning a gun on himself. Nepal's Hindu monarchy never recovered from the carnage, and a Maoist insurgency surged in the vacuum of legitimacy.