The king and Nepal part ways

The Nepalese monarchy was abolished two weeks ago, part of a deal between politicians and Maoist rebels to end a decade-long civil war. But its symbolic end occurred with a few steps by Gyanendra when the ex-monarch left his former residence. Those steps marked the changing of a king to a citizen and a country's passage to a republic. Nepal's deposed monarch waved farewell to the royal palace in Kathmandu, and to his role as the country's king, with a grace and dignity that had not always been present during his reign. In many ways Gyanendra was the architect of his own defeat. He seized power from a civilian government in 2005, a move that made him deeply unpopular. What had the potential to be a difficult day instead passed off with a measure of gravitas.

The new republic has many daunting challenges ahead but at least an interfering ex-monarch does not seem to be muddying the political waters. Indeed the people of Nepal may come to acknowledge that the highest service the former king did for his country was the manner in which he left royal residence. On the day the king departed, history in Nepal was made for all the right reasons.