Nepal king worships power goddess

The 58-year-old monarch, accompanied by Queen Komal, made a quiet visit on Friday to the shrine of Dakshinkali, about 25 km south of Kathmandu, a palace official said.

The king, who gave in to last month's street protests and reinstated the parliament dissolved in 2002, offered prayers to the "family deity" in a ceremony marked every year on the eighth day after the half-moon day in the Nepali month of Baisakh (mid-April to mid-May), he said.

"This is a very important worship of the family or personal deity," said Mukunda Raj Aryal, an expert on Nepal's Hindu culture. "The family deity is the most important of all gods and is worshiped on all auspicious occasions."

The monarch offered prayers for more than 90 minutes at the shrine located in a forested ravine and sacrificed a goat, a lamb, a buffalo, a rooster and a duck to the deity, the Kathmandu Post daily said.

It said more than 300 soldiers and policemen kept a vigil along the route and around the temple but the usual rush of people to cheer the monarch was conspicuous by its absence.

It is common for Hindus in Nepal, the world's only Hindu kingdom, to sacrifice animals to Dakshinkali, considered the goddess of power.

For centuries, Nepali Hindus considered the king as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the god of protection and one of the sacred Hindu trinity of supreme gods that also includes Brahma and Shiva.

But King Gyanendra's popularity dipped after he sacked the government and took over absolute power early last year.