Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was the reigning Nepalese monarch until he was stripped of his royal privileges following a constituent assembly meeting in the capital, Kathmandu, on May 28, 2008. The assembly overwhelmingly voted to abolish the Nepalese monarchy, thus turning Nepal into a federal republic.

He succeeded to the throne upon the death of his nephew Dipendra, who was King for only three days while in a coma, following the massacre of the preceding king and other members of the royal family. Gyanendra has been skeptically and persistently viewed as a culprit of this massacre although Dipendra was officially declared responsible for all those killings.