In the south Asian tradition of non-violent resistance, a woman sits in between riot police and protesters in order to stop a street battle in Kathmandu. Riot police attacked the crowd of anti-monarchists when they began marching toward the city center. While the military is occupied fighting anti-monarchists in the Himalayas, the capital city descends into lawlessness. Here a gang of children burns and loots the Ministry of Agriculture in Patan. A man is beaten by a riot policeman and taken to prison for violating the citywide curfew in Kathmandu. Rioting anti-monarchists take control of Kathmandu's streets at night, threatening a driver who they suspect is loyal to King Gyanendra. A protest against King Gyanendra turns violent when the crowd marches toward Narayanhiti Royal Palace. A child reflects on the aftermath of a violent riot that reduced the streets of his neighborhood to ashes. Riot police in Patan respond to a peaceful protest for democracy by firing tear gas at the crowd. Exhausted ambulance workers take a break from transporting casualties of urban violence in the parking lot of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu Anti-monarchist street protests erupt throughout Kathmandu. When a group of riot policemen haul a child away to prison, they are confronted by a United Nations observer. The boy was accused of breaking the citywide curfew and throwing stones at authorities. Thousands of journalists and free speech activists gather in Durbar Square – the ancient seat of power in Kathmandu – to protest censorship and the King's stifling of the press. Tens of thousands of Nepalese crowd Khula Manch, a public park, to celebrate the ouster of King Gyanendra and the rise of a new, possibly democratic, nation. People from all corners of Nepal gather in Kathmandu to celebrate the end thousands of years of monarchy. Young men gather in Khula Manch to hear Maoist leaders speak about building a new Nepal, without a king. Young Maoists display images of their leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda 'The Fierce'. Maoists joined the mainstream political process at the end of the conflict, becoming the dominant political party in Nepal. Women from the Madhesh region of southern Nepal arrive in Kathmandu to march for political autonomy. Following the civil war, Madheshis demanded the abolition of a bureaucracy that was dominated by politicians of other ethnicities. The strength of their protests, which occasionally became violent, threatened to fragment Nepal along ethnic lines. After the war, Nepal declared itself a republic. King Gyanendra became a private citizen and several millenia of monarchy came to an end, at the cost of 13,000 lives. The new Nepal continues to struggle with political instability and widespread poverty. With eight of the world's ten highest mountains, hydroelectricity provides hope for Nepal's distant economic future.