From Asia Times Online:
Prithvi Narayan Shah, the 18th century founder of modern Nepal, famously described his fortified kingdom in the Himalayas as a yam between the two boulders of India and China.
That perception never escaped his descendants, and certainly not the astute and ambitious King Gyanendra, who looks for support for his “royal coup” from Beijing, while snubbing New Delhi and pro-democracy powers like Britain and the United States.