Prince Harry has been crowned honorary head of a village during his first official visit to Nepal.
The people of Leurani welcomed the prince with garlands and scarves and crowned him with a pheta, a turban used by the villagers to show his status as an honorary leader of the villagers.
Harry joined the villagers in their ceremonial dancing and spent the night in the home of Mangali Tamang, 86, widow of a former Gurkha rifleman, to experience life with people living in the Himalayan nation.
Prince Harry crowned honorary head of Gurkha village in Nepalhttps://t.co/XyVP9fIvK7 pic.twitter.com/UQ7A8QiEo7
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) March 22, 2016
Tamang was very happy to welcome her guest and referred to him as “king.” “I’m very happy to meet someone who has fought with the Gurkhas and to meet him at this age,” she said.
Prince Harry worked with Gurkha soldiers in Afghanistan in 2008. The royal is set to visit the home of the brigade of Gurkhas to honor “the extraordinary bravery and commitment that Gurkhas have shown in the last 200 years.”
Video: Prince Harry at a ceremony to honour the Gurkhas. #HarryinNepal pic.twitter.com/PMzvtTlLGp
— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) March 22, 2016
Harry also met with the survivors of the earthquake that devastated the country last year, which killed almost 9,000 people. He said he wanted to see how the people are recovering from the deadly quake.
“I pay my respects to those who perished and hope to do what I can to shine a spotlight on the resilience of the Nepali people,” Prince Harry said.
He also spoke to Nepal’s first female president, Bidya Devi Bhandari, at the Presidential Palace in Kathmandu and talked about climate change. During his trip, the royal visited Bardia National Park, which is home to 50-100 tigers, rhinos, and elephants. Prince Harry mimicked the movements of a tiger to see how the cameras used to monitor the tigers work.
Prince Harry has bunked down with a Nepalese family in a remote hillside village. @turnerscope #7News https://t.co/NFkVIUORGW
— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) March 22, 2016
The prince’s five-day visit also marks the bicentennial year of former bilateral relations between Britain and Nepal.