The wedding of Crown Prince Birendra and Aishwarya was held on 27 February 1970 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The wedding was attended by more than 300 international guests. Around 50 heads of state were invited. The King of Laos, the President of India and the Governor-General of Ceylon attended the wedding while other countries sent their representatives. [1] Crown Prince Birendra was aged 24 and Aishwarya was 20 at the time of the wedding.
The wedding had an extensive preparation. Four white stallions were brought from England and flowers from the Netherlands. Exotic foods were brought from New Delhi in two planes including 130 Indian waiters and 40 taxi cabs. [2] 200 automobiles were brought from Germany and Japan.
The Singha Durbar was cleaned to make room for the bride's family. [2] The roads of Kathmandu were repaved and street lights were reinstalled. Government buildings were whitewashed and new walls were built for older constructions. Two new second‐class hotels were taken by government to serve the guests. [1]
The hippies and the hashish market (then a legal business) were closed months before the wedding. [1]
A postal stamp was issued to mark the occasion. [3]
The cost of the wedding was about US$9.5-16 million (Nepal's annual national budget was 66 million at that time). [2] [1]
Over 50 head of states were invited in the wedding. Attendees:
The dates and times of all the wedding rituals were determined by Hindu astrologers. Hundreds of children and adults cavorted around the nine elephants to start the wedding procession. The wedding took place on 27 February 1970. Gifts were showcased in the streets. Some dignitaries walked to the palace. All Nepalese guests walked. [4]
Two days of elaborate vedic rituals were performed prior. On the wedding day, Birendra mounted an elephant at the Royal Palace and led a two mile long procession. Upon reaching the courtyard of Singha Durbar, the prince performed ceremonies with the princess in front of an eternal flame. The couple's feet were washed by guests from the bride's side. [2]
Kathmandu, officially Kathmandu Metropolitan City, is the capital and most populous city of Nepal with 845,767 inhabitants living in 105,649 households as of the 2021 Nepal census and approximately 4 million people in its urban agglomeration. It is located in the Kathmandu Valley, a large valley in the high plateaus in central Nepal, at an altitude of 1,400 metres.
Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah, was the eighth King of Nepal. Born in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, he ascended to the throne at the age of five, upon the death of his father, Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah, and was crowned on 20 February 1913 at the Nasal Chowk, Hanuman Dhoka Palace in Kathmandu, with his mother acting as regent. At the time of his crowning, the position of monarch was largely ceremonial, with the real governing power residing with the Rana family.
Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was King of Nepal for three days from 1 to 4 June 2001. For the duration of his three-day reign he was in a coma after he had shot his father, King Birendra, his mother, Queen Aishwarya, his younger brother and sister, five other members of the royal family and himself on 1 June. Upon Dipendra's death, his paternal uncle Gyanendra became king.
Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, was the tenth King of Nepal from 1972 until his assassination in 2001. He was the eldest son of King Mahendra.
Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is a former monarch and 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.
Prince Nirajan Bir Bikram Shah Dev was a prince of Nepal, the younger son of King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya of Nepal. He and his parents were killed during the Nepalese royal massacre by Nirajan's elder brother Dipendra.
Aishwarya Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah was the Queen of Nepal from 1972 to 2001, also referred to as Bada Maharani (बडामहारानी). She was the wife of King Birendra and the mother of King Dipendra, Prince Nirajan, and Princess Shruti. She was the eldest among the three daughters of the late General Kendra Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana and Shree Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah in Lazimpat Durbar, Lazimpat, Kathmandu.
Princess Shruti Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah of Nepal was the daughter of King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, and sister of King Dipendra and Prince Nirajan.
The Shah dynasty, also known as the Shahs of Gorkha or the Royal House of Gorkha, was the ruling Chaubise Thakuri Rajput 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.
Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah is a member of the Nepalese royal family who was queen consort of Nepal from 1955 to 1972 and queen dowager from 1972 to 2008 when the royal family were stripped of all titles and privileges. She is the second wife of King Mahendra (1920–1972). Ratna belongs to the aristocratic Rana family and is the daughter of Field Marshal Hari Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana and his wife, Megha Kumari Rajya Lakshmi.
Komal is a member of the Nepalese royal family who was Queen of Nepal as the wife of King Gyanendra of Nepal until the monarchy was abolished on 28 May 2008. She is also known by the name Komal Shah.
The Nepali royal massacre occurred on 1 June 2001 at the Narayanhiti Palace, the then-residence of the Nepali monarchy. Nine members of the royal family, including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, were killed in a mass shooting during a gathering of the royal family at the palace. A government-appointed inquiry team named Crown Prince Dipendra as perpetrator of the massacre but the actual incident still remains a mystery with questions being raised on the fictitious modus operandi of Late King Dipendra. Dipendra slipped into a coma after shooting himself in the head.
The Narayanhiti Palace Museum is a public museum in Kathmandu, Nepal located east of the Kaiser Mahal and next to Thamel. The museum was created in 2008 from the complex of the former Narayanhiti Palace following the 2006 revolution. Before the revolution, the palace was the residence and principal workplace of the monarch of the Kingdom of Nepal, and hosted occasions of state.
Prince Dhirendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal was the youngest son of King Mahendra of Nepal and his first wife, Crown Princess Indra.
The coronation of the Nepalese monarch was a rājyābhiṣeka, a Hindu religious ceremony in which the King of Nepal was crowned. The last coronation was held on 4 June 2001 for King Gyanendra. The Kingdom of Nepal was the last Hindu monarchy in the world at the time of its dissolution in 2008.
The architectural heritage of Kathmandu city is integral to that of the Kathmandu valley since all monuments have evolved over centuries of craftsmanship influenced by Hindu and Buddhist religious practices. The architectural treasure of the Kathmandu valley has been categorized under the well known seven groups of heritage monuments and buildings. In 2006, UNESCO declared these seven groups of monuments as a World Heritage Site (WHS). The seven monuments zones cover an area of 188.95 hectares, with the buffer zone extending to 239.34 hectares. The Seven Monument Zones (Mzs) inscribed originally in 1979 with a minor modification in inscribed year as 2006, are: Five monuments in Kathmandu – Durbar square of Hanuman Dhoka, Hindu temples of Pashupatinath and Changunarayan, the Buddha stupas of Swayambu and Boudhanath; and two monuments outside Kathmandu city limits, in the satellite towns of Patan and Bhktapur – Durbar square at Patan, Durbar square at Bhaktapur. Brief details of the five Kathmandu city monuments are elaborated here.
The Order of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol, also called the Order of the Million Elephants and the White Umbrella, is the highest knighthood order of the Royal Family of Laos.
General Prince Narendra Bikram Shah was the second son of King Surendra of Nepal. The prince was exiled to India because of his involvement in a conspiracy against the Rana dynasty.
The Tribhuvan Sadan is a mansion in the Narayanhiti Palace, Kathmandu, Nepal. It is known for being the site of the Nepalese royal massacre where ten members of the royal family, including King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, and Crown Prince Dipendra were killed. The mansion was formerly occupied by King Tribhuvan and his family and later by Dipendra, Crown Prince of Nepal. The Tribhuvan Sadan was demolished after the orders of the Queen Mother Ratna however It is currently being reconstructed.
Birendra was crowned as the tenth King of Nepal on 24 February 1975, at the age of 29. The coronation was held two years after the death of his father, King Mahendra because the first year was a year of mourning period and the next was considered inauspicious by court astrologers. Representatives from 60 nations attended the ceremony.
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