In 1930, the celebrated American photographer Richard Gordon Matzene made a unique series of portraits of the ruling families of Nepal. The handsome aristocrats and sumptuously adorned women in his immaculate portraits are here identified and their biographies fitted into the panoply of Nepalese court drama and intrigue. Local and regional conquests, two world wars, a devastating earthquake, and the rampant malaria that challenged the regime are all part of this story. With index.