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The following is a list of the heads of state of Nepal, from the unification of the country and the founding of the Kingdom of Nepal in 1768, to the establishment of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in 2008.
The King of Nepal was the country's head of state from the unification and the establishment of the kingdom in 1768 to 2008. Since 2008, the head of state has been the President of Nepal after the abolition of monarchy and the establishment of a republic.
Nepal was ruled by monarchs of the Shah dynasty from 1768 till the abolition of monarchy in 2008. However, from 1846 until the 1951 revolution, the country was de facto ruled by the hereditary prime ministers of the Rana dynasty, reducing the role of the Shah monarch to that of a figurehead. [1] The monarchy was abolished on 28 May 2008 by the 1st Constituent Assembly. [2] [3]
No. | Portrait | King (Birth–Death) | Reign | House | Claim | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reign start | Reign end | Duration | |||||
1 | Prithvi Narayan Shah पृथ्वी नारायण शाह (1723–1775) | 25 September 1768 | 11 January 1775 | 6 years, 108 days | Shah | King of the Gorkha Kingdom since 1743 | |
2 | Pratap Singh Shah प्रताप सिंह शाह (1751–1777) | 11 January 1775 | 17 November 1777 | 2 years, 310 days | Shah | Son of Prithvi Narayan Shah | |
3 | Rana Bahadur Shah रण बहादुर शाह (1775–1806) | 17 November 1777 | 8 March 1799 (abdicated) | 21 years, 111 days | Shah | Son of Pratap Singh Shah | |
4 | Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah गीर्वाणयुद्ध विक्रम शाह (1797–1816) | 8 March 1799 | 20 November 1816 | 17 years, 257 days | Shah | Son of Rana Bahadur Shah | |
5 | Rajendra Bikram Shah राजेन्द्र विक्रम शाह (1813–1881) | 20 November 1816 | 12 May 1847 (abdicated) | 30 years, 173 days | Shah | Son of Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah | |
6 | Surendra Bikram Shah सुरेन्द्र विक्रम शाह (1829–1881) | 12 May 1847 | 17 May 1881 | 34 years, 5 days | Shah | Son of Rajendra Bikram Shah | |
7 | Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah पृथ्वी वीर विक्रम शाह (1875–1911) | 17 May 1881 | 11 December 1911 | 30 years, 208 days | Shah | Grandson of Surendra Bikram Shah | |
8 | Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah त्रिभुवन वीर विक्रम शाह (1906–1955) | 11 December 1911 | 7 November 1950 ( went into exile ) | 38 years, 331 days | Shah | Son of Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah | |
9 | Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah ज्ञानेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह (born 1947) | 7 November 1950 | 7 January 1951 ( stepped down ) | 61 days | Shah | Grandson of Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah | |
(8) | Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah त्रिभुवन वीर विक्रम शाह (1906–1955) | 7 January 1951 | 13 March 1955 | 4 years, 65 days | Shah | Son of Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah | |
10 | Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah महेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह (1920–1972) | 14 March 1955 | 31 January 1972 | 16 years, 323 days | Shah | Son of Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah | |
11 | Birendra Bir Bikram Shah वीरेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह (1945–2001) | 31 January 1972 | 1 June 2001 ( assassinated ) | 29 years, 121 days | Shah | Son of Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah | |
12 | Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah दीपेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह (1971–2001) | 1 June 2001 | 4 June 2001 ( declared braindead ) | 3 days [lower-alpha 1] | Shah | Son of Birendra Bir Bikram Shah | |
(9) | Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah ज्ञानेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह (born 1947) | 4 June 2001 [lower-alpha 2] | 28 May 2008 (deposed) | 6 years, 359 days | Shah | Son of Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah |
Under the interim constitution adopted in January 2007, all powers of governance were removed from the king, and the Constituent Assembly elected in 2008 was to decide in its first meeting whether to continue the monarchy or to declare a republic. During the suspension of the monarchy, Girija Prasad Koirala, then Prime Minister of Nepal, acted as the Head of State. On 28 May 2008, the Assembly voted to abolish the monarchy. Ram Baran Yadav was elected by the Constituent Assembly, and was sworn in as the nation's first president on 23 July 2008.
Status: Denotes Acting Head of State
No. | Portrait | Name | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
– | Girija Prasad Koirala (गिरिजाप्रसाद कोइराला) (1925–2010) Acting | 15 January 2007 | 23 July 2008 | 1 year, 190 days [lower-alpha 3] | Congress |
No. | Portrait | President | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Party | Election |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ram Baran Yadav (रामवरण यादव) (born 1948) | 23 July 2008 | 29 October 2015 | 7 years, 98 days | Congress | 2008 | |
2 | Bidya Devi Bhandari (विद्यादेवी भण्डारी) (born 1961) | 29 October 2015 | 13 March 2023 | 7 years, 135 days | CPN (UML) | 2015 2018 | |
3 | Ram Chandra Poudel (राम चन्द्र पौडेल) (born 1944) | 13 March 2023 | Incumbent | 1 year, 208 days | Congress | 2023 |
Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions. Constitutional monarchies differ from absolute monarchies in that they are bound to exercise powers and authorities within limits prescribed by an established legal framework.
Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multiracial, multicultural, multi-religious, and multilingual country. The most spoken language is Nepali followed by several other ethnic languages.
The politics of Nepal functions within the framework of a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and their cabinet, while legislative power is vested in the Parliament.
The Kingdom of Nepal was a Hindu kingdom in South Asia, formed in 1768 by the expansion of the Gorkha Kingdom, which lasted until 2008 when the kingdom became the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. It was also known as the Gorkha Empire, or sometimes Asal Hindustan. Founded by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkha monarch who claimed to be of Thakuri origin from chaubisi, it existed for 240 years until the abolition of the Nepalese monarchy in 2008. During this period, Nepal was formally under the rule of the Shah dynasty, which exercised varying degrees of power during the kingdom's existence.
The abolition of monarchy is a legislative or revolutionary movement to abolish monarchical elements in government, usually hereditary. The abolition of an absolute monarchy in favour of limited government under a constitutional monarchy is a less radical form of anti-monarchism that has succeeded in some nations that still retain monarchs, such as Sweden, Spain, and Thailand.
Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is the last king of Nepal, reigning from 2001 to 2008. As a child, he was briefly king from 1950 to 1951, when his grandfather, Tribhuvan, took political exile in India with the rest of his family. His second reign began after the 2001 Nepalese royal massacre. Gyanendra Shah is the first person in the history of Nepal to be king twice and the last king of the Shah dynasty of Nepal.
Nepal Ratna Girija Prasad Koirala, affectionately known as Girija Babu, was a Nepalese politician. He headed the Nepali Congress and served as the Prime Minister of Nepal on four occasions: from 1991 to 1994, 1998 to 1999, 2000 to 2001, and 2006 to 2008. He was the Acting Head of State of Nepal between January 2007 and July 2008 as the country transitioned from a monarchy to a republic.
The Shah dynasty, also known as the Shahs of Gorkha or the Royal House of Gorkha, was the ruling Chaubise Thakuri dynasty and the founder of the Gorkha Kingdom from 1559 to 1768 and later the unified Kingdom of Nepal from 1768 to 28 May 2008.
The Federal Parliament of Nepal is the bicameral federal and supreme legislature of Nepal established in 2018. It consists of the National Assembly and the House of Representatives as parallel houses.
The Nepalese democracy movement was the combination of a series of political initiatives and movements from the 20th century to 2008 that advocated the establishment of representative democracy, a multi-party political system and the abolition of monarchy in Nepal. It has seen three major movements, the Revolution of 1951, Jana Andolan and Loktantra Andolan which ultimately abolished the Shah monarchy, transitioned Nepal towards a republic and reintroduced multi-party bicameral democracy.
Hridayendra Shah is a member of the former Nepalese Royal Family and was the second in line to Nepal's royal throne. The monarchy was officially abolished on 28 May 2008. Until the abolition of the monarchy he was known in Nepal by the title Nava Yuvaraj.
Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Nepal is a Hindu right-wing, cultural conservative party. It previously existed as royalist political party in Nepal from 2006 to 2016. The party was formed as a splinter of Rastriya Prajatantra Party in 2006 and was later reunified in 2016. The party was reformed in 2022 by Kamal Thapa.
The president of Nepal is the head of state of Nepal and the commander-in-chief of the Nepalese Armed Forces.
The vice president of Nepal is the deputy to the head of state of Nepal. The position was created when the Nepalese monarchy was abolished in May 2008. The current vice-president of Nepal is Ram Sahaya Yadav. The vice president is to be formally addressed as 'His Excellency'.
The King of Nepal was Nepal's head of state and monarch from 1768 to 2008. He served as the head of the Nepalese monarchy—Shah Dynasty. The monarchy was abolished on 28 May 2008 by the 1st Constituent Assembly. The subnational monarchies in Mustang, Bajhang, Salyan, and Jajarkot were abolished in October of the same year.
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The following lists events that happened during 2008 in Nepal.
Republic Day is a national holiday in Nepal. It commemorates the date on which the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal took place on 28 May 2008, which ended the 240-year reign of the Shah kings and declared Nepal a republic. The establishment of the republic put an end to the civil war that lasted for almost a decade. According to the Nepali calendar, the republic day is marked on Jestha 15 every year. Celebrations include a military parade in Kathmandu and several small-scale programs organised by various government agencies across the country.