The thrones of Nepal and Bhutan are being rocked by political change. However, the two monarchies' paths to this end could not be more different.

In Nepal, partial election results announced today show that the Maoist insurgent leader Prachanda has won a seat in Nepal's Constituent Assembly, the body which will draft a new constitution for the Himalayan kingdom in coming months. His Maoist party has taken a majority of the constituencies counted so far.

For the past ten years, Nepal has been wracked by a brutal war between Prachanda's forces and the national government that has left more than 13,000 people dead, and paralyzed the country's once-thriving tourist trade.

The Nepalese monarchy itself was dealt a crippling blow on June 1, 2001, when Crown Prince Dipendra killed nine members of his family, including both the king and queen, before turning the gun on himself. Apparently, the Crown Prince was angry over his parents' refusal to allow him to marry his Indian girlfriend. Dipendra died in the hospital on June 4, and his uncle Gyanendra, who had been in Pokhara at the time of the shooting, assumed the throne.

King Gyanendra is deeply unpopular in Nepal, so much so that many Nepalese suspect him of goading the Crown Prince to massacre the other royals.

The new constitution is expected to abolish the monarchy, which has ruled Nepal for more than 200 years, and establish a democratic republic in its stead. Western powers will be watching closely to see how much influence the Maoists have in the new government.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck (love the name) is defying his people, and handing over power to an elected parliament. Despite citizens' assertions that they are happy to be ruled by an absolute monarch, the King ordered political parties to organize themselves ahead of March 24, 2008 parliamentary elections. Turnout for the election was estimated at about 80 percent; after all, the King proclaimed it a duty of every Bhutanese citizen to vote.

Then again, I guess that's what you'd expect from a monarch who measures his country's success in terms of "Gross National Happiness," rather than Gross National Product.

Photo of King Gyanendra by Antonio Garcia Rodriguez on Flickr.com. Photo of King Wangchuck by Robert Tyabji on Flickr.com.