Hundreds of people today witnessed a unique religious ritual of externment of a crownedbrahmin priest dressed in the shoes and spectacles of late king Birendra in a symbolic farewell to the slain monarch andto ensure eternal peace for his soul, ten days after he and nine other royals were mysteriously gunned down at theNaraynhity palace.
The eleventh day ritual at the Kalmochan Ghat on the banks of river Baghmati was conducted according to vedictraditions by the kingdom's chief priest Keshari Raj Pandey and attended by some close relatives of the royal family,members of the Nepalese cabinet led by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and other prominent citizens including chiefjustice K.P.Upadhyaya and speaker of the lower house Taranath Ranabhat, who are probing into theJune1 palace massacre.
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King Gyanendra, Nepal's new king and younger brother of the late monarch, and other members of the royal family werenot present, which palace officials said was as per the tradition.
The king does not attend mourning functions. That is the tradition, his majesty's press secretaryMohan Bahadur Pandey said.
Other royals, including queen Komal, who were injured in the palace shooting, could not attend the ceremony as most of them were undergoing treatment at the Birendra Military Hospital, he said.
A large number of people, who had gathered outside the ghat, were not allowed inside due to space constraints, policesaid.
Earlier, during the two-hour elaborate ceremony, exclusively meant for dead monarch and held amidst tight security, a 75-year-old lean brahmin, Durga Prasad Sapkota, dressed like the lateking, was provided with katto (a special meal) comprising 84 dishes which he symbolically partook.
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Signifying the passage of the soul to its heavenly abode, he later mounted a decorated elephant,Niranjan (named after the other son of King Birendra who also lost his life inthe shootout), specially brought for the occasion from the Royal Chitwan National park, and leftKathmandu for Jaolakhel, taking with him things used by the late monarch, including ornaments, beddings, clothes andfurniture.
Sapkota crossed the Baghmati river and was accompanied by a procession of porters and police personnel.According to tradition, after consuming the katto, the brahmin becomes impure and is externed for life from theKathmandu valley. They are not supposed to show their faces again. They are given enough in cash and kind to live comfortably for the rest of their lives,but times have obviously changed and instead, Supokta will spend a night on theoutskirts of Kathmandu before returning to the city two days later.
The 11th day rituals of late crown prince and king Dipendra will take place at the same venue onWednesday.
Meanwhile, the situation in the valley remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere, policesaid.
