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Nepal Looks For Girl To Serve as New “Living Goddess”

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Nepal Looks For Girl To Serve as New “Living Goddess”

 

Source: in.reuters.com

KATHMANDU, NEPAL, August 12, 2008: Religious authorities in Nepal have begun the search for a girl who could be as young as three or four to serve as the new Kumari, or the virgin “living goddess”, in a centuries-old tradition.

Astrologers were consulting horoscopes of candidates from Buddhist Shakya families to replace the current Kumari, Preeti Shakya, who is 11 and should retire during the annual Hindu festival of Dasain in October, temple officials said. “If we don’t change her now, we’ll have to wait until next year which could be late,” said Deepak Bahadur Pandey, a senior official of the state-run Trust Corporation that oversees the country’s cultural matters.

Under the Kumari tradition, a girl selected from a Buddhist Newar family goes through a rigorous cultural process and becomes the “living goddess”. She is considered by many as an incarnation of the powerful deity Kali and is revered until she menstruates, after which she must return to the family and a new one is chosen.

Traditionally it was believed that the girl’s horoscope should be in harmony with that of the king of Nepal. It is not clear how this formality will be completed now that Nepal has abolished the monarchy. In the past even the kings of Nepal sought her blessings.

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<table style="direction: ltr;" width="100%" border="0"><tbody><tr><td>Nepal Supreme Court Orders Virgin Goddesses to School</td></tr> <tr> <td valign="top"> By Steve Herman

New Delhi

20 August 2008

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-20-voa13.cfm

</td> <td valign="top" align="left">

</td> </tr> </tbody></table>

Young virgins worshipped as a powerful Hindu deity in Nepal must be granted basic human rights. That is the ruling of the supreme court of the Himalayan country. VOA correspondent Steve Herman, in our South Asia bureau in New Delhi, reports on what the ruling will mean for the girls known as Kumaris, revered by many Hindus and Buddhists.

 

<table class="APIMAGE" style="direction: ltr;" width="195" align="left"><tbody><tr><td>afp_nepal_kumari_godess_file_20aug08_eng_175_1.jpg</td></tr><tr><td class="imagecaption">Kumari attends the festivities on the last day of Rato Machindranath chariot festival also known as Bhoto Jatra at Jwalakhel, on outskirts of Kathmandu (file photo)</td></tr></tbody></table>Child rights activists in Nepal are hailing a supreme court ruling regarding girls worshipped as living goddesses. The judges have decreed that the virgin Kumaris of Nepal should be sent to school and not secluded in medieval palaces.

 

The girls are chosen when they are three or four years old from a Buddhist caste and maintain their divine state until they reach puberty. They preside over all important religious and cultural ceremonies in the Kathmandu Valley. About a dozen other Kumaris are scattered across Nepal.

 

The chairman of the Informal Sector Service Center, a human rights group in Kathmandu, Subodh Raj Pyakurel, hails the court ruling.

 

"It has given a very good message in our country," Pyakurel said. "Specifically, keeping into the mind that child rights violations or negligence to the children's rights are time and again conducted in the name of continuum of tradition and in the name of religion, also."

 

The social justice activist says the legal decision will protect children by strengthening their rights in a new secular constitution lawmakers are about to draft.

 

"Not only on the basis of the Child Act Convention, but also on the basis of the court's decision the new constitution should very clearly mention specifically about the role and responsibility of the state towards providing the children's rights in practice," Pyakurel said.

 

Nepal is one of Asia's most destitute countries. It is estimated that more than half of Nepal's children have no access to primary school. And, nearly half of those between the ages of 10 and 14 work, many without pay or as bonded laborers.

 

The situation of the Kumari goddesses is unique. They are not allowed to live with their families, receive no formal schooling and do not get to play with other children.

 

Defenders of the tradition argue that the girls are taken care of in regal fashion and serve as a symbol of unity between the majority Hindus and the country's Buddhists.

 

The supreme court ruling comes three months after Nepal abolished its Hindu monarchy, whose legitimacy was tied to the annual blessing from the Kumari.

 

A former rebel who led the Maoist insurgency against the monarchy was sworn in as the first prime minister of the Nepal republic, Monday. The Maoists consider the Kumari an "evil" legacy of the rigid Hindu caste system and incompatible with socialism.

 

Defenders of the Kumari tradition say their mandate comes from the heavens and court rulings issued by mere mortals will not apply.

 

The most prominent current Kumari, 11-year-old Preeti Shakya, is likely to be forced into retirement after an annual festival in October.

 

A search is on for her successor. She must have 32 physical perfections, including flawless skin, hair, eyes and teeth. She also must not be afraid of the dark. In return for a small stipend for her parents, she supposedly can misbehave without fear of punishment and eat whatever she desires.

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What else to expect from Maoists? "The Kumari was probably doomed the moment the Maoist administration took office. One of the first acts of the Maoists was to end the 240-year-old monarchy in Nepal."

 

Nepal court scraps 'living goddess' tradition

 

Centuries-old custom of worshipping a virgin girl is deemed outdated by supreme court

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/20/nepal

 

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kumari1.jpg A Hindu priest worships a girl dressed as the living goddess Kumari. Photograph: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images

A centuries-old tradition in Nepal of worshipping a virgin girl-child in a palace as a "living goddess" has been scrapped after it was condemned as outdated by the country's supreme court, which has ruled that the supposed deity must go to school.

Earlier this year, religious authorities started a search for a new Kumari, chosen from a handful of three-year-olds, after it was revealed the current living goddess is going to retire later this year.

However, that process looks as if it will be halted after the country's highest court accepted the argument from a lawyer that keeping a young girl locked up in a medieval palace in Kathmandu was a violation of her fundamental rights.

 

The court ruled against the rights of the Kumari being "be violated in the name of culture".

 

"There should be no bar on the Kumaris from going to school and enjoying health-related rights as there are no historical and religious documents restricting Kumaris from enjoying child rights," the court said.

 

Some analysts said the court was simply responding to the new political atmosphere in the Himalayan nation under former rebel Maoists, who are determined to end "feudal" practices.

 

Kumaris, revered until they menstruate, preside over many key Hindu festivals in Nepal, drawing thousands of tourists every year. The tradition was begun in the 16th century by Kathmandu's royal ruling class, who believed the goddess would protect them.

 

Her attributes are said to include a voice "as soft and clear as a duck's, the body of a Banyan tree and the chest of a lion".

 

The Kumari was probably doomed the moment the Maoist administration took office. One of the first acts of the Maoists was to end the 240-year-old monarchy in Nepal. It was tradition for Nepal's king to be blessed by the Kumari – whose horoscope had to match that of the monarch.

 

Maoist MPs have described the institution of the Kumari as an "evil symbol" linked to Hinduism's rigid caste system, incompatible with revolutionary socialism.

Some would say a Kumari's life is not too bad: she can eat whatever she likes and act with impunity. Her parents are not allowed to tell her off.

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