Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva

Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva

 

Born Dec. 28, 1945, in Katmandu. King of Nepal since 1972. Son of Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva.

Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva became crown prince in 1955. He studied in India and at Eton College in Great Britain, Tokyo University in Japan, and Harvard University in the United States. He has carried out a number of constitutional and administrative’reforms directed at strengthening the power of the throne. His foreign policy has followed a course of nonalignment and peaceful international cooperation. He led the Nepali delegation to the Algiers Conference of Heads of State and Government of Nonaligned Countries in 1973 and to the Colombo Conference in 1976. Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva paid an official visit to the USSR in 1976.