He began the day as King Gyanendra of Nepal, revered as the reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu and enthroned as head of the world’s only surviving Hindu monarchy, dating back 240 years. He ended it as a commoner — albeit a rich one — after a new assembly dominated by former Maoist rebels used its first meeting yesterday to abolish the monarchy.

After a day of intense political drama, which was marked by bombings, backroom negotiations and jubilant demonstrations, the assembly agreed by 560 votes to 4 to replace King Gyanendra with a president.

It also agreed to give him just 15 days to vacate the Narayanhiti Palace in Kathmandu, which will be turned into a museum.

“We have come a long way, crossing lots of obstacles and hurdles to enter a new era,” Girija Prasad Koirala, the elderly Prime Minister of Nepal, said in a short address to the assembly. “I think the nation’s dream has come true,” he added.

The republican declaration stated that Nepal will become “an independent, indivisible, sovereign, secular and an inclusive democratic republic”. “All the privileges enjoyed by the King and Royal Family will automatically come to an end,” it said.

Many Nepalis hope that the historic decision will end a decade-long civil war that killed more than 13,000 people and devastated the tourismdependent economy of Nepal. The Maoists, who ended their insurgency in 2006 and won a surprise victory in an April election, have long insisted on replacing the King with a strong, executive president.

Other parties, however, worried that the Maoists will use the presidency to turn Nepal into a dictatorship. A small group of royalists remain loyal to King Gyanendra.

Those tensions spilled on to the streets earlier as political leaders wrangled into the night over who, and in what capacity, should replace the monarch. Three small bombs exploded in Kathmandu, injuring at least one person, in what police suspect were the latest in a string of attacks by hardline monarchists.

More than 10,000 triumphant Maoist supporters marched through the city chanting, “Down with the monarchy”. Police used tear gas to disperse thousands more Maoists who violated a ban on protests around the assembly venue to demand that King Gyanendra be deposed.

There was no immediate response from King Gyanendra, who has said only that he wants to stay in Nepal. Analysts said that he is likely to move into his private home in Kathmandu and live off the proceeds of the business interests in tobacco, tea, hotels and property that he acquired before he took the throne in 2001 after a massacre at the palace by Crown Prince Dipendra.

It will nonetheless be a humiliating fall from grace for a man worshipped as a living God.

Troubled royals

1768-90 The Shah dynasty begins after King Prithvi Narayan Shah conquers the Kathmandu valley

1996 Maoists launch an armed rebellion from remote Himalayan foothills to try to topple monarchy

2001 King Birendra and most members of the royal family are shot dead by Crown Prince Dipendra, who also shoots himself

2005 King Gyanendra takes absolute power vowing to crush the Maoists

2006 King Gyanendra gives up absolute power after protests

2008 Prime Minister Koirala and Maoist chief Prachanda sign a peace deal, ending a war that killed more than 13,000 people

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