While working as a physiotherapist in Shimla, Erica Leuchtag got a letter on Christmas Eve 1948. Could she go to Kathmandu to serve a noble lady? When Erica asked for more details, she found out that Tribhuvan’s first wife needed her help. Erica replied positively; and soon was trudging up the hills to Kathmandu, which neither had a motorable road to it nor an airplane service. Erica ended up in one of the five government guest houses in Tripureshwar. On meeting Tribhuvan, she pitied him as if he were a caged bird.
During one intimate conversation, Tribhuvan mentions his desire to overthrow the Ranas and become a constitutional monarch. Erica Leuchtag suggests a way. She will contact Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru on the king’s behalf.
In 1911, Tribhuvan had ascended the throne at the age of five. On Ranas’ insistence, at 12 he had married two Indian girls. By 14, the king had children through his queens. Tribhuvan couldn’t talk to foreigners without the PM’s permission. Right from the beginning, Erica developed distaste for PM Mohan Shumsher and the Ranas. People had more of Mohan’s pictures than the king’s. The Ranas had closed the Buddhist monk Amritananda’s monastery because of his preaching and executed a man for listening to Mahatma Gandhi over the radio. A pampered Rana youth hadn’t learnt to tie his shoelaces because his servants did it for him, so Erica gave him his first lesson in self-help. Erica mentions with disgust that the PM’s crown cost 200,000 British pounds while the daily labourer received a wage of two pence.
Tribhuvan could drive a car inside the Narayanhiti Palace compound only with the PM’s permission. The Ranas censored the king’s letters. He read books, which the hotel owner Boris (in India) sent him, and did physical exercises to maintain fitness. One day Tribhuvan asked Erica to teach him Western dancing. The tutorial occurred almost daily and sometimes both danced for hours. The king took her to every room in the palace, invited her to all parties, and shared his intimate aspirations with her. Erica mentions that the two queens on their own initiative got a woman called Sarala as his concubine so that she could make up for what they lacked!
We’ve read of Tribhuvan’s “poverty”. Erica’s accounts negate this. The king could gift silver and gold quite readily. He ordered luxuries from overseas through catalogs. Tribhuvan certainly didn’t have money like the Ranas but they gave him enough to keep his whining mouth shut.
During one intimate conversation (which could last for eight hours), Tribhuvan mentions his desire to overthrow the Ranas and become a constitutional monarch. How could he fulfill his aim? The India-resided Erica suggests a way. She will contact Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru on the king’s behalf.
Erica went to the British embassy first. The officials there showed no interest to help the palace-imprisoned king. She asked an English lady to go with her to Pashupati so that she could tell her secrets more confidently. Her British counterpart replied that Pashupati is a smelly place! This ended her approach to the Brits.
Next, Erica thought of the Indian ambassador Surjit Singh. She met him, told him of Tribhuvan’s desire, and asked him to write to Nehru. Erica then discovered the king’s talent for disguising himself. The Ranas had allowed him to visit his two sons, Himalaya and Basundhara, who lived outside the palace compounds. While driving to their house, Tribhuvan carried a violin box to give the impression that his visit concerned music. Once in their home, the king dressed as an untidy farmer, climbed over the compound wall, and walked towards the tree that Singh had given as a meeting place. When Tribhuvan arrived there the first time, the ambassador didn’t appear. To console the discouraged king, Erica went to the Indian Embassy to find out the cause. She saw Singh with swollen cheeks and high fever, sick in bed. The second visit proved a success. Singh met the “farmer”, and drove him in his car to the Indian Embassy where Tribhuvan poured out his heart. To Erica’s dismay, Singh finished his term and left Nepal.
Now, Erica had another challenge—to persuade the new Indian ambassador, Chandreshwar Prasad Narayan Singh, to help the king. Erica met the man in the Budhanilkantha temple. Then, her own time to depart from Nepal arrived. Would Chandreshwar rescue Tribhuvan?
As a tribute to his German lady-friend, the king built the “Erica Dance Hall”. She left for Shimla 10 days later. Before the final goodbye, the two had agreed on a code to correspond with each other. For examples, a “snake” would stand for a Rana; a “big snake” for the PM; a “handkerchief” for a telegram; a “stable” for Singha Durbar; a “matchstick” for a hand grenade; and a “kite” for an airplane. On January 31, 1950, Tribhuvan wrote to tell her that things had gone in his favor.
The ambassador CPN Singh kept his word to Erica. On November 6, 1950, Tribhuvan and his family tricked the Ranas and entered the Indian embassy. The confused guards returned to Singha Durbar which sent Bijaya Shumsher with a revolver and some soldiers. Singh told him to put his gun on the table if he wanted to meet the king. For the first time, the PM’s son Bijaya had to wait hours for someone else. When Tribhuvan finally appeared, he told the official, “I’m the king. I am not satisfied the way you’re behaving towards me and my people. Tell His Highness (PM Mohan Shumsher) that!” Four days later, with the help of the Indian Embassy security, Tribhuvan made his way to Gauchar where an airplane had landed to take him to meet Pundit Nehru in Delhi.
Erica’s book ends with Tribhuvan’s death and the katte Brahmin, after eating food mixed with the king’s pulverized bones, leaving the Kathmandu valley through Thankot on an elephant. She doesn’t mention that after becoming the constitutional monarch the king reneged on his promises. He ignored the constituent assembly election. He bypassed the Nepali Congress leader BP Koirala, and made MP Koirala the PM. After MP resigned, Tribhuvan started ruling through an advisory council and scrapped the interim constitution. For his anti-government protests, BP went to jail on September 21, 1953. The NC leader appealed to the Supreme Court which ordered his release. This piqued the king who (on November 13) usurped judiciary powers too and became a dictator. If Tribhuvan had kept his promise to Erica Leuchtag and remained a constitutional monarch, perhaps we’d still have a king today.
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