KUMARIDEVI, NEPAL

THE LIVING GODDESS OF NEPAL
Kumari Devi & the Indra Jatra Festival
The Himalayan Hindu Kingdom of Nepal is not only the land of many mountain peaks, but also of many gods and goddesses, unique among all of them being the living, breathing goddess – Kumari Devi, a deified young girl.
The custom of worshipping a pre-pubescent girl, who is not a born goddess, as the source of supreme power is an old Hindu-Buddhist tradition that still continues to this day in Nepal.
The story goes like this. Jaya Prakash Malla was the King of Malla Dynasty. According to myth, he was playing every night Tripasa (a kind of dice game) with the Goddess Taleju. The Goddess used to come every night to play with him with a condition that he would never reveal this secret to anyone. One day the Queen came searching for the King and saw him playing with the Goddess. When the Goddess saw the Queen, she was very angry. She told the King that if he wanted her to come back and protect his country then he would need to go in a search of a virgin in the Newari community in whom she would reincarnate herself and save the country. It is believed that the King went in search of a virgin girl in the Newari Community and the tradition of Kumari thus started.
Choosing the Living Goddess
Selection of the Kumari, who is entitled to sit on the pedestal for worship as the Living Goddess is an elaborate affair. According to the traditions of Vajrayana sect of Mahayana Buddhism, girls in the age-group of 4-7 year, who belong to the Sakya community, and have an ‘appropriate’ horoscope are screened on the basis of their 32 attributes of perfection, including color of eyes, shape of teeth and even voice quality. They are then are taken to meet the deities in a dark room, where terrifying tantrik rituals are performed. The sight of the Buffalo heads scattered around, the demon- like masked dancers, the terrifying noises they encounter scare some of these innocent babies. The real goddess is one who stays calm and collected throughout these trials. Other Hindu-Buddhist rituals that follow finally determine the real Kumari. The Kumari cult is distinctly evident among the Newar community in the Kathmandu Valley as she has become an inevitable feature of their worship almost in every Vihar and Bahal, including the nooks and corners of Newari settlements
Girl Becomes Goddess
After the ceremonies, the spirit of the goddess is said to enter her body. She takes on the clothing and jewelry of her predecessor, and is given the title of Kumari Devi, who is worshipped on all religious occasions. She would now live in a place called ‘Kumari Ghar’, at Kathmandu’s Hanumandhoka Palace square. The god-house, Kumari Ghar is a store-house of magnificent intricate carvings where the Living Goddess performs her daily rituals. During her tenure in the god-house, Guthi Sansthan, the government trust fund bears her entire expenses including that of her caretakers.

The Kumari Festival (Indra Jatra)
Indra Jatra is performed on the last day of rainy season(September end), to seek blessings from Indra the god of rains, so that the rains arrive next year as usual.
On Indra Jatra day the Living Goddess in all her jeweled splendor travels through the older part of Kathmandu city in a three tiered chariot accompanied by Ganesh and Bhairab for three days. It is really a grand gala in which thousands throng in and around the Kathmandu Durbar Square to pay their homage to the Living Goddess. During this festival she also blesses the King in keeping with the tradition in which the first king of the Shah dynasty, who annexed Kathmandu in 1768, received a blessing from the Living Goddess.
This is the only day on which she appears in public.
Normally, the Kumari appears for tourists through an intricately carved window at her residence in the historic square on a few occasions. But not for the past six months. Her guardians have withdrawn her from sight because of the row with the Kathmandu municipality. The whole area has been declared as “Endangered” by UNESCO and an entry fee is charged form Foreigners. There is a dispute about sharing this revenue which has lead to this impasse.

Goddess Turns Human
The Kumari’s godhood comes to an end with her first menstruation, because it is believed that on reaching puberty the Kumari turns human. However, if she turns out to be unlucky, even a minor cut or bleeding can render her invalid for worship, and the search for the new goddess has to begin.
As the reigning Kumari approaches the age of 12, the board of selectors reactivates their child-hunting network. At the first sign of menstrual blood, it's the end of the road for the present Kumari -- her days of power are gone, the spirit of Taleju has fled her body, and all that's left to do is take her back where she had come from.
This fall from grace has never been smooth, and modern thinkers suggest a sort of half-way house where ex-Kumaris can adjust to the drastic change in their circumstances. Most come away wondering why they are being penalized, and find it tough to settle down in a house where they no longer belong, with a family they hardly know. They suffer emotional scars.
Parents too have little use for a daughter who may as well have dropped into the household from another planet -- with no social skills, no experience of domesticity, no education, no prospects of catching a husband. There is a superstition that men who marry Kumaris will die soon, so Kumaris generally remain un-married.
The walls of the Kumari palace are replaced by a vast emotional wasteland and there are no doors this time, which will release them after they have served their time.
Many children will suffer similar fate, so long as financial constraints remain a factor in the poverty-stricken Shakya community. Parents willingly hand over their daughters as there is a mouth less to feed. The superstition that without them, the country is lost still retains its death grip on girls of Nepal's Hindu-Buddhist society.
“After all these years, I still cannot cross the road by myself”, says one ex Kumari whom we met during the Jatra while we were waiting for the Kumari Devi to come out of her dwelling. “I cannot relate to crowds, I shut myself out at family gatherings as I find I have nothing to say. The only time I feel some measure of security is when I'm alone. I've grown accustomed to silence.”