A Living Goddess – Kumari Devi

Tweet

When Vince was in Kathmandu in 2015, he visited Durbar Square and was able to see the Kumari or 'living goddess'. It is a Hindu tradition for high priests to choose a young girl, between 4 and 7, as the Kumari Devi. She is believed to be the incarnation of Durga, goddess of destruction and blood sacrifices. She will belong to the Sakya community. There are 32 'attributes of perfection'. Shape of teeth, voice quality, eye colour are all important. The Kumari Devi must have the 'neck of a conch shell' and the 'eyes of a cow'. She is also obliged to pass several tests. One of these involves being placed in a darkened room with severed animal heads. Grotesquely masked men dance around her and try to frighten her. Other rituals and tests finally identify the true Kumari. Once the Kumari Devi has been selected, she moves with her family into the Kumari Bahal and remains there until her first true menstruation. She only leaves the residence a few times each year on ceremonial occasions. The goddess appears to tourists occasionally through one of the three upstairs windows of the house. These are adorned with elaborately carved wooden frames. Whenever she goes outside the house, she must be carried as her feet are not allowed to touch the ground. We saw the Kumari yesterday but I don’t have a photo to show you. I have a postcard I can photograph but that is back in West Australia. There were several guides and a handful of tourists in the courtyard waiting for the Kumari to make her appearance. We’d been told ‘no photos’ of the Kumari. The guides made sure our cameras were down but had to speak twice to a Japanese lady. Then, just as the Kumari was about to appear, there was a shout from one of the three windows as her teacher had spotted the woman at the back of the group, still intent on taking a photo. This time she scuttled off so didn’t get to see the girl. The photo is of one of the buildings in Durbar Square. You can see the poles propping up the walls. Many of the buildings had lots of props around the walls as a result of the earthquake.