The pace of the modernization of Nepal is inversely proportional to the number of elephants that have been employed at its three most recent coronation ceremonies. The coronation of King Tribhuvan in 1913—witnessed by only one foreigner, the resident British ambassador—required the services of 109 elephants. The crowning of King Mahendra in 1956, attended by representatives of 15 of the growing number of nations with which the Himalayan kingdom then exchanged diplomats, required 43. For last week's coronation of King Birendra, the streets of Katmandu were aswarm with hundreds of foreign...
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