A mere three-year-old girl has been declared a living goddess and will be worshiped in the South-Asian nation of Nepal.
Trishna Shakya (C), 3, is carried by her father Bijaya Ratna Shakya (L) as she heads to Kumari House where she will live
for the next few years as the new Kumari, and worshipped as a living goddess, in Kathmandu. Photo: AFP
A girl who is as young as three years, has been anointed the new Kumari of Kathmandu by Hindu priests on Thursday.
The little girl was annointed in a ritual that will see her worshipped as a “living goddess” until she reaches puberty.
According to Agence France Presse, AFP, wearing a red dress,
Trishna Shakya was taken from her home to an ancient palace in the
Nepalese capital’s historic Durbar Square where her initiation began
with a short ceremony.
She was then carried by her father across the cobbled square —
which still bears the scars of a powerful earthquake that hit in 2015 —
to the Kumari’s palace where she will live under the care of
specially-appointed guardians.
Flanked by her family and barefoot men in red tunics, the short
walk was the last time the three-year-old will be seen in public without
the elaborate makeup of the Kumari until puberty, when she will become a
normal girl once again.
“I have mixed feelings. My daughter has become the Kumari and
it is a good thing. But there is also sadness because she will be
separated from us,” her father Bijaya Ratna Shakya told AFP.
As the Kumari, Shakya is considered the embodiment of the Hindu
goddess Taleju and will only be allowed to leave the temple 13 times a
year on special feast days.
At midnight, Hindu priests will perform an animal sacrifice, which the new Kumari will attend as part of her initiation as a “living goddess”.
Historically, 108 buffalo, goats, chickens, ducks and eggs were
slaughtered as part of the ritual — a number considered auspicious in
Hinduism — but under pressure from animal rights activists fewer animals
are now killed.
The tradition of the Kumari, meaning princess in Sanskrit, comes
from the Newar community that is indigenous to the Kathmandu Valley.
It blends elements of Hinduism and Buddhism and the most important
Kumaris represent each of the three former royal kingdoms of the valley:
Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur.
The practice was once closely linked to the royal family but has continued despite the end of Nepal’s Hindu monarchy in 2008.
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