There are two monarchies in our neighbourhood we can learn from: Cambodia and Thailand. In the mid-1970s the Vietnam War was winding down, uncertainty and chaos was in the air and both countries were wracked by insurgencies. Meddlesome powers were playing out their proxy wars. Cambodia took the path of anarchy and ruin that ultimately lead to a genocide that obliterated one-sixth of its population. The zealots who lead that revolution felt the death toll was immaterial in furthering the revolutionary cause of a peasant proletariat, and at the end of it all 1.5 million Cambodians were dead. Cambodia was the world's first, and so far only, Maoist monarchy.

Thailand took a different road. Its rulers were not the world's greatest democrats, but it was lucky in having a benign and creative monarch who worked in subtle ways to influence his country's political evolution. Thailand took the deliberate policy of bringing basic development to the areas where Thai Maoists were most active, paying special attention to the neglected northeast of the country. The government invested in health and education, and in infrastructure projects that linked remote areas to markets so that the locals benefited from selling produce.

It is much more difficult to build than to destroy. And Thailand today is living proof that the strategy of hard work for the longer term is well worth the effort. That evolution works better than revolution.

No country has a monopoly on violence and mayhem. No country has a monopoly on tolerance and gentility. Nepal does not automatically become the land of smiling and peace-loving people just because Gautam Buddha was born here. We have to work to give peace a chance.