Nepal's central bank calls time on ex-king's face
More than two years after Nepal's last king stepped down from the throne, his face is finally to disappear from the country's banknotes, the central bank said yesterday.
Nepal replaced former king Gyanendra's face with a picture of Mount Everest on all new currency in 2007 after parliament voted to abolish the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.
But old notes bearing the portrait of the unpopular former monarch have remained in circulation.
Central bank spokesman Gopal Kaphle said the old notes would be phased out by the end of the current Nepalese year, which falls in mid-April 2011.
"We are trying to circulate clean notes. The old notes will be replaced by new notes, and we are getting rid of notes with a picture of the former monarch," Kaphle told AFP.
Former king Gyanendra left the throne in June 2008 when the then Maoist-led government declared the country a secular republic.
Revered by supporters as a living incarnation of a Hindu god, he lost the support of many Nepalese when he seized direct rule in 2006 following Maoist protests.
The Maoists waged a 10-year insurgency against the monarchy before winning elections in 2008 and forming a government.
Comments