Kumari the Living Goddess of Nepal

Kumari – the living goddess of Nepal
 
By: Rameshwar Singh Pande

Nepal is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural country. Majority of the people are either Hindu and/or Buddhist. Both the Hindu and Buddhist people have many gods, goddess, deities  incarnations and manifestations- which are worshipped and revered as statues, images, paintings and symbols- but it also has a real living goddess- Kumari.
"Kumari" means pre-pubescent girl regarded as ‘virgin goddess’ and a source of supreme power by both Hindu and Buddhist. The Goddess Kumari is believed to hold the cosmic power to protect and defend all living beings. In Nepalese community especially, in Hindu, the unmarried girls used to write "Kumari" as a middle name and married women write "Devi" as a middle name; literally the world "Kumari" means a virgin girl in Nepali language.
 
 
 
The Kumari is regarded as an incarnation of Taleju Bhawani, a goddess and a female deity Durga, the Universal Mother. The "Kumari" cult is mainly found in Kathmandu valley and mainly practiced by Newar communities. In each town of Kathmandu valley i.e. Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur there are one Kumari, but the Kumari of Kathmandu is regarded as royal Kumari . The Kumari is selected from the "Shakya" family in Kathmandu.  Newars are a sect of people originally belonging to the Katmandu Valley and Shakya is one of the lower, and poor clan of Newar caste systemKumari is selected from a large number of contestants from the Shakya clan between the age of four and five. Five senior priests choose the girl from the "Newar" Shakya caste.. In order to be a Kumari, one must pass through several tests. The girl must possess 32 attributes of perfection of the goddess such as free from any disfigurement, a perfect health and no serious illnesses, virgin with an unblemished body. She must have prominent black and gorgeous expressive eyes, white teeth without any gaps, a sonorous voice, long slender arms, delicate and soft hands and feet, straight hair curled towards the right side. The most important requirement is that the girl has never menstruated
When a Kumari has her first menstruation, she loses her divine power and is returned back to life as an ordinary girl.  Menstruation is seen as a mark of impurity in the Nepalese society. Other Hindu girls must stay inside a closed room for the first two weeks without encountering males in general and sunlight after their first menstruation. This is a tradition that has been continued for centuries. At the end of the two weeks, the girls have to perform certain rituals with priests, which are specific to the pubescent girls, before she can lead an ordinary life. Finally, the girls’ horoscope must match with that of the King of Nepal to ensure compatibility.
The girls who meet these physical requirements are then subjected to several other rigorous tests. The selection of the Kumari ceremony is usually held on the eighth day of Dashain festival and is called Kal-ratri (Dark night). Dashain is one of the biggest Hindu festivals in Nepal that falls in mid October. During the day, many buffaloes are sacrificed and their bloody heads are placed in candlelight in the courtyard of the Taleju temple. At midnight the priests carry the Kumari clockwise around the monstrous heads. A dancer wearing a monstrous mask dances near the girls to terrify them. The real goddess is unlikely to be frightened, so the one who is calm and collected throughout the tests is the only girl who is entitled to sit on the pedestal for worship as the Living Goddess. Finally the girl is given the items of clothing and decoration worn by her predecessor. This is how an ordinary four-year girl becomes a Living Goddess, the Kumari.
Once the selection procedure is over, the Kumari must undergo a series of secret rituals mainly tantric ceremonies to remove all past experiences from the body to allow for the spirit of the Goddess Taleju to enter. (Tantric is the Hindu rituals or practices outlined with the techniques of meditative and sexual practices. Thus Tantricism is the process in which tantric rituals are practiced).
Wearing her Kumari topknot, a tika, and a red mark on her forehead to represent the third eye, red vestments, red painted toes, and elaborate jewelry, the ceremony reaches its climax when the girl takes her seat on the lion throne of the goddess. At dawn she leaves the temple and walks through a huge crowd, treading on a white cloth as she goes across the public square to her official residence as a Taleju Goddess (Durga in the form of Kumari). The third eye on the forehead of the goddess is a metaphorical eye, which is believed to destroy all the evil in the world. Kumari''s feet must never touch the ground.  The Kumari lives in a three-floored temple of magnificent, intricate, carvings where she performs her daily rituals. During her tenure in the god-house, the government trust fund bears her entire expenses including that of her caretakers.
 
Kathmandu celebrates a great festival of Indra Jatra the god of rain is worshiped for good weather and good crops.  The Kumari festival is a part of the Indra Jatra festival in which the primary purpose is to worship the God Indra. During Indra Jatra, occurring in September, the Living Goddess in all her jeweled splendor travels through the older part of Kathmandu city in a three-tiered chariot made of wood accompanied by Lord Ganesha and Bhairab for three days.  During another important Hindu festival, Dashain on the "black night" or kalratri, 108 buffaloes and 108 goats are brought to the courtyard of the Taleju temple and tethered to stone pillars. The heads are then severed and taken up to the temple as offerings to Goddess Taleju.
A girl remains the Kumari until she reveals any signs that show her to be human rather than divine. Should a Kumari fall ill, a doctor may be summoned only if the illness is so serious that she is first declared to be no longer a goddess. Under normal circumstances, her days in the god-house come to an end with her first menstruation, but if she turns out to be unlucky, as people say, even a minor scratch that bleeds can make her invalid for worship. She then changes back to the status of normal mortal and the search for a new Kumari begins. When a girl is declared unfit as Kumari, she immediately ceases to be regarded as a goddess, goes through final rituals, and hands back her jewels and red attire. The spirit of the goddess is said to have vacated her body. She now returns to her family, after living the life of luxury as a goddess, the Kumari is being dumped unprepared and neglected back into the harsh realities of life and try to adjust to the normal life.
 
Now the status of the Kumari has been improved a lot. Government of Nepal is also proving living allowances to ex-Kumari for her subsistence in their life time. Most of the ex-Kumari have joined school and colleges and are living happy and modern married life.