King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is the King of Nepal who came to the throne, in 2001, in the bloodiest of circumstances. A massacre of the Nepalese Royal Family at their palace in Kathmandu left Gyanendra heir to the Himalayan kingdom of 28 million people. But the reign of a man many hold to be a living god — Nepalese Hindus believe their kings are incarnations of Vishnu — has been no less controversial than its beginning.

Now, after days of demonstrations near the palace where Gyanendra is under siege, the King’s reign balances on a razor’s edge. Opposition has gathered against him ever since a royal coup in Febraury last year, in which he sacked Nepal’s elected government and established absolute rule. Nepalese have noted a six-fold increase in the Royal household budget. Then again, King Gyanendra has always had a deep sense of the value of royal blood.

He was born in 1947 into a lifestyle at once opulent and — thanks to a powerful dynasty of hereditary prime ministers — precarious. Indeed, the young Gyanendra was even declared King of Nepal for four months in 1950, only to abdicate when his father — King Tribhuvan — returned from exile to wrest power back to the throne. Sent to boarding school in India, the young Prince refused to hand a flower to the visiting Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, declaring: “I am higher than he.”

But with his father on the throne, and an elder brother – Birenda – next in line, Gyanendra looked set to play just a supporting role in Nepalese history. He dabbled in business – he owns a hotel and a cigarette factory – and married in 1970, producing a son, Paras, and a daughter, Prerana. In June 2001 came the news that thrust him centre stage. According to official reports, the massacre at the royal palace was perpetrated by Gyanendra’s nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, who, furious at being refused permission to marry his girlfriend, opened fire on his family at dinner, killing his father, King Birenda, his brothers, and then himself. Gyanendra was absent at the time. Asked about his apparent lack of grief, he said: “There is a human face to every king, but he doesn’t have to flaunt it.”

Since then, Gyanendra has increased his authority over Nepal. “The days of monarchy being seen but not heard are over,” he promised before he seized absolute power last year. Now, under pressure from an alliance of seven political parties, he pledges elections in 2007. But with police firing rubber bullets into ever-swelling crowds of demonstrators, Gyanendra must wonder if he will reign long enough to redeem that pledge.