SFGate put together a timeline of events for Nepal over the past 4 years, and The Independent put together a little biography of King Gyanendra. It gives you a pretty good idea of where this country has come from.

UPDATE: Transition Trends has some detailed followup as well.

Now, disturbing reports are leaking out of the central town of Pokhara, where on Tuesday evening a student protest was followed by a brutal attack by the army. From reports I’ve seen, the BBC’s account is only half the story.

Apparently, when the army raided the student hostels in Pokhara, they went completely overboard, using helicopter gunships and teargas. Scores of students were then tortured in custody. It seems to be a pattern: other towns report harsh restrictions against the media and an overly brutal crackdown on dissent.

And it looks like newspapers are resorting to metaphor because of the censorship:

Beyond printing dry announcements released by the palace, a cursory glance of the press seems to say little about the situation.

But a closer look reveals some substance hidden between the lines.

A small graphic in the weekly Nepali Times shows the front pages of a number of foreign newspapers. Among the headlines: “Trouble on the Roof of the World” and “King sacks govt: Nepal cut off.”

Or read that paper’s editorial about trees being cut down, clearly a metaphor for a muzzled press. The piece waxes poetic about how trees allow people to breathe freely, and how their roots hold the soil together.

“Can we ask the concerned authority to promptly correct the move and bring back greenery?” the editorial concludes.

And is China playing in the game?