AN UNIQUE HUNT IN NEPAL

General Kiran with tiger shot by Colt .45

Mr. James Stone was the project manager of Riblet Tramway Company that set up the Kathmandu - Hetauda Ropeway under U.S. Aid in 1959 A.D. Riblet took our estate Kiran Bhawan on rent for their personnel and Bill Stone, son of the manager, spent a few years of his childhood with his parents in Nepal. Bill discovered my blog and sent me this story my father General Kiran had written on his unique hunt, a copy of which he autographed and presented to Jim. It is a fascinating account and I was enraptured by it even though I was familiar with the story. By God's grace I still have the skin attached to the mounted head of the same tiger my father bagged with his Colt .45.

Crayon Painting of General Kiran commemorating the unique tiger shoot.

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THE BIOGRAPHER: LIFE OF GENERAL PADMA JUNG RANA

An important biography of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana was written by his son General Padma Jung Rana during his exile in India and it was published after his death in Allahabad in 1909 A.D. by Pioneer Press titled "Life of Sir Jung Bahadur of Nepal". It is the only book to my knowledge that is written by an "insider" eye witness, a member of the family of Jung Bahadur, and is full of interesting accounts and anecdotes that would not have come to light had it not been for this book. I have always wanted to learn more about the Rana family members who fled Nepal after the coup d'etat of 1885 A.D. and their life in India. Here is the first in the series: my findings on General Padma Jung Rana. A tragedy in life came early, at the very instance of birth in fact. Writes General Padma Jung Rana in his biography of his famous father, he was born on the very day Maharajah Jung Bahadur Rana left Kathmandu for the war effort to relieve the hard-pressed British forces i...

THE A, B, C CONUNDRUM

Balkrishna Sama's portrait of the nine Rana prime ministers, 1846 - 1951 A.D. Nepalese history books tell stories of the nine Rana prime ministers ruling Nepal in unison for 104 years and the family is often depicted and reviled as one monolithic juggernaut that assaulted and consumed the sovereignty of benign kings and their happy, loyal subjects. Nothing could be further from the truth on both counts. Out of the nine one was assassinated, two were unceremoniously removed from the post by their own siblings, one resigned due to internal and external exigencies and the last one was forced to give it all up. But who were those that did not get to wear the "Teen Chand" prime ministerial crown? I often look at the fading pictures of the family to trace the hierarchy at the times they were taken. The Soviets were famous for cleverly air-brushing out the disgraced party members from chesty pictures of proletarian solidarity. The Ranas just removed them from the frames...

INTO THE MAELSTROM - JUNG BAHADUR LEADS AN ARMY

G overnor General Lord Canning's request to Jung Bahadur to assist the British militarily in Avadh sent a maelstrom through the court of Nepal. Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa's war was still fresh in peoples' mind and the wound of Sugauly had not yet healed. The pacifists wanted to stay neutral saying it was not our fight. The powerful conservative faction still smarting from the earlier defeat wanted to fight the British instead by reinforcing Begum Hazrat Mahal. Maharajah Jung Bahadur was a brave-heart but he had first-hand witnessed the might of Britain; he knew that it was not the time to fight them. Too, he disliked the duplicity of the Indian rajas and the decadence of the Avadhi court where, until recently, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was ruling the roost. He had also heard of savage killing of British civilians, women and children too, anathema to the chivalrous Jung. But decision to go to war is always a soul-searching affair. Jung held counsel with h...

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