I arrived home from Ama Dablam on Thanksgiving Day 2005 and followed Nepal’s unfolding situation closely through the media and through conversations with friends I’d made in Nepal. The political atmosphere remained status quo until the final days of January 2006, when the Maoists ended their three-month cease-fire, sparking a series of unprecedented events. Throughout February and March, residents of the Kathmandu Valley took to the streets, protesting Gyanendra’s seizure of absolute control. RNA forces used helicopters, tear gas, and batons against
protestors — more than 25 people were killed and 5,000 wounded.
On Friday, April 21, 2006, the Associated Press and Kantipur Television reported that more than 150,000 pro-democracy protestors had filed into the capital city, defying curfews and the RNA’s government-issued orders to shoot protestors on-sight. Under increasing internal pressure and blunt warnings from foreign diplomats — including U.S. Ambassador James Moriarty, who warned Gyanendra that his regime was nearing collapse — the King made his only remaining move: In an historic declaration, Gyanendra relinquished his power and called on Nepal’s seven-party alliance (the CPN included) to name quickly a prime minister. “Executive power shall, on this day, be returned to the people,” he explained in a televised speech. By April 25, Gyanendra had reinstated a house of representatives; this seven-party alliance appointed 84-year-old Girija Prasad Koriala as prime minister.
In the same spirit of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests in Beijing, the historical Kathmandu demonstrations of early 2006 appear to have ended direct palace rule and reassigned the power to the people. The Maoists have declared another cease-fire, and business has returned to normal in Kathmandu. And while I would return to Nepal in a heartbeat to climb these sacred mountains, I remain cautiously optimistic about the country’s political future.

Jordan Campbell, the son of a former Foreign Service Officer, was stationed in Brazil and Venezuela throughout the late 1960s. He lives in Basalt, Colorado.