King sought divine blessing with pancake rite before coup
King Gyanendra prepared the ground for his surprise February 1 coup by initiating an elaborate ritual at his ancestral home in Gorkha to seek a blessing for the move.
'Every time the king does something strange, he comes here first,' said a local of the pretty hill town.
Eleven priests spent 11 days making 125,000 pancakes as an offering to the Shah dynasty's private god, Gorakhnath, at the 18th century hilltop fort where King Gyanendra's ancestors lived before they conquered Nepal.
Such was the fierceness of the fighting men from Gorkha, their hometown later gave its name to the Gurkha regiments.
King Gyanendra was present at the beginning of the ritual and returned in secret by helicopter three days after his takeover to witness the conclusion.
The day the king chose for the coup was one of the luckiest of the year, according to astrologers, and many weddings were disrupted by the event. The priest said that when King Gyanendra came for the second time he told them: 'Don't worry, Nepal will be peaceful, I love all Nepali people.'
Below the well-guarded brick and timber fort complex lies the main bazaar area. All around are steep valleys soldiers say are infested with Maoist guerillas.
The king made his first public appearance yesterday since seizing control and declaring emergency rule, but said nothing during a brief event held amid tight security. He drove to the old Hanumandhoka Palace in the centre of the capital, Kathmandu, to participate in a ceremony to welcome the spring.
He took flowers from the head priest as traditional music played and a 21-gun salute rang out.
Traffic on Nepal's highways, meanwhile, was light yesterday after Maoist rebels warned drivers to stay off the roads as part of a blockade to protest against the king's power grab.
