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Introduction:

“Erika and King Tribhuvan: The Extraordinary True Story Of A Woman Who Went To Nepal Met A King And With Him Overthrew A Kingdom” or shortly known as “Erika and King Tribhuvan” is a true autobiography of the author herself, Erika Leuchtag, consisting of her hindrance yet fulfilling journey as a physiotherapist , while helping the the king of the Nepal at that moment, King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah Dev , to overcome the threatening Rana Regime.

Plot:

Erika was a German Physiotherapist, who was called into Nepal in 1949 AD for the treatment of the ill Queen of Nepal, King Tribhuvan’s wife. Despite arriving in Nepal just for work purposes, as time passed by, she got close to all the royal family members of Nepal , establishing a warm relationship between them. Among all the members, her relationship with King Tribhuvan got really strong, sensing comfort with him. However , not long after, Erika started noticing something unusual. In the country's ruling system, it was always seen that The King was rule-marker or the rule-changer. However, in Nepal , it was not so. King Tribhuvan was never seen working and instead she started realizing how the King and his family were kept in a situation called house-arrest. With the time she spent there, she realized that the reason why this “house arrest” was happening was because of the Rana Regime, causing the King to be powerless, contradicting the typical hierarchy system. She realized how the King was being controlled by the Rana people. Through her days there at the palace, she spent time there by teaching the members dance and other different languages. Erika was a smart one. With her relation with the Indian diplomats, she , once-and-for-all gave it her all, and adamantly helped King Tribhuvan to end the Rana Regime. She helped the King escape to the Indian Embassy which resulted in the King’s power to be restored again. Soon after the Rana Regina ended, Erika went back to her other places. She and the King still exchanged letters to each other symbolizing how strong their relationship was. However, King Tribhuvan had gotten a sickness and finally , when going to India, he ultimately had to face his demise. Erika was heartbroken hearing about his demise. To honor the King’s demise, the Nepali had organized a traditional way of funeral. In order to show respect to him, some Nepali even shaved their head, completely abandoned leather shoes etc showing how deeply they respected their King for his bravery by ending the Rana Regime which was not only haunting the King, but also the citizens too.

Critical Analysis:

“Erika and King Tribhuvan” is a really significant autobiography , showcasing the process of how Nepal ended the Rana Regime. The first strong point of this book is its first hand realistic information. Since the events are based in real life and the autobiography was about the author herself, the story in this book and the emotions portrayed in this book felt real, which enhanced the book reading experience by a lot. Second of all, the role of the King. As we all know, we perceive “King” to be the strongest ones, the ones who order and the ones who rule. However, due to the Rana Regime situation going on, The King here was utterly powerless. This really humanized King Tribhuvan’s character , adding depth to his character. Despite being powerless initially, through the bravery he had built up within the help of Erika, he was able to ultimately end the drastic Rana Regime.

Repeating it again, this book is an autobiography, meaning all the events happening in this book are written by Erika Leuchtag herself. So some of the events or the plot of this book might seem biased due to it being written through her own experience or her own point of view. But, this also makes the book more realistic . Additionally, the reader of the book needs to have a bit of a background of the Nepali political system. Not knowing a single thing about the system can lead to confusion throughout this book as this book is a Nepali political-historical system centered book.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book to readers who are interested in the political or the historical centered books. This book feels like a different one, since it helps us to know what is actually happening inside the doors of the magnificent palace which we can only look through from outside. It gives us this new perspective of the role of the Kings and inside powers, we might have never really expected of . In my opinion, the story was really fascinating, consisting of truth and reality. Thus,with the emotional depth, the sense of courage and historical significance this book has provided to us, I would really love to recommend this book.