"Come back, King! Save the nation!" chanted the crowd gathered at Kathmandu airport on March 9. That day, some 10,000 supporters of the monarchy, abolished nearly twenty years ago, gathered to welcome former King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev. He was returning from the city of Pokhara, west of the capital, after taking part in pro-monarchy gatherings in several regions of the country. "Long live our beloved king," his supporters fervently proclaimed. Many observers expressed concern about the "ghosts of the monarchy" possibly returning to "haunt Nepal," as stated by the local daily, Nepali Times.

The former sovereign, 77, had succeeded his older brother in 2001 after almost the entire royal family was massacred in circumstances that remain unclear to this day. At the twilight of his authoritarian reign in 2005, he suspended the Constitution and dissolved Parliament. Weeks of pro-democracy protests and the joining of the Maoist rebellion, which was raging in certain regions, eventually forced him to abdicate in 2006. The 240-year-old monarchy was abolished two years later, in 2008, in favor of a secular republic, ending a decade-long civil war that claimed around 17,000 lives.

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