KATHMANDU: This past week Sajani Shakya, 10, the Living Goddess of the medieval town of Bhaktapur in Kathmandu valley, was touring Washington DC and New York City as part of a British documentary promotion tour.
At Lafayette Elementary School near White House, as she was mobbed by inquisitive American school children and teachers, she told the New York Times newspaper thorough an interpreter, “There’s nothing I don’t like about being goddess.” Later, she went on a tour of the White House too.
The documentary Living Goddess, directed by Ishbel Whitaker, depicts the life of Living Goddesses of Kathmandu Valley around 2005-2006 when a prolonged struggle for democracy was on in Nepal.
Thanks to the unique tradition of worshipping selected pre-menstrual, pre-puberty girls as Kumari, Kathmandu Valley has over a dozen Kumaris, all living goddesses and all revered.
The principle amongst them, also worshipped by Nepal’s King, resides in the principle Kumari temple downtown, and is often a centre of attraction for tourists and local Hindu and Buddhist devotees alike. But soon after the Kumari begins menstruating she is required to retire, paving the way for a new girl to take over.
Typically, a new Kumari is born into a Shakya Buddhist family, has a golden complexion, her body like a banyan tree with no cut or injury marks whatsoever, and is between the age of 7 to 12. Hindus and Buddhists believe Goddess Bhawani or Mahakali inhabits the girls, although they don’t demonstrate abnormal behaviour.
“It feels great to be worshipped,” says former Kumari Rashmila Shakya, 24, who recalls being worshipped by one and all and at Indra Jatra festival taken around the city in a special, traditional chariot.
Rashmila says she felt a little uncomfortable assimilating back into her society when she retired at age 12. That was that. Today she’s an Information Technology graduate, looks for a job, and plans to go abroad for post graduate degree.
Disagreeing with the traditional belief that former Kumaris shouldn’t get married and that they continue to posses divine powers as they grow, the modern former Kumari says, “I don’t want to remain single. Of course, I want to get married one day.” Meantime, little Kumari Sajani Shakya of is busy with her documentary tour of US cities.
