I am not writing this blog to promote any religion or hurt anyone’s feelings. I just want to share the knowledge I have in this platform so many people know about our culture and beliefs.
I am originally from a beautiful country Nepal where we have countless gods, goddesses, deities, avatars (incarnations of deities living on earth), Bodhisattvas and manifestations, which are worshipped and revered as statues, images, paintings and symbols, the country also has a real living goddess. I am talking about The Kumari. The Kumari Devi is a very young girl who is believed to be a re-incarnation of Devi Durga. The Kumari lives in the building known as Kumari Ghar (house) which is next to Kathmandu’s Durbar square.
The selection of the Kumari is very tough process. To be eligible to be the Kumari a young girl must meet thirty two strict physical requirements which includes sound of her voice, colour of her eyes, shape of her teeth. She should also have a appropriate horoscope. And the main thing is she should be from a particular caste of Newari gold and silversmiths. Majority of Kumari’s are from Shakya or Bajracharya (surnames) and they must be Buddhist.
When all the requirements met then the suitable candidates will have to pass more tests to become the Kumari Devi. She must be fearless. There will be a test where candidates will be gathered in a very dark room where there are strange and horrible noises. The real goddess who will pass the test should not be frighten with those noises as the Kumari is an incarnation of goddess Durga. The young girl who does not get scared and stay calm during the test is the new Kumari Devi.
Once the process completes then the new Kumari Devi will move to the Kumari Ghar with her family to live there.
The Kumari Devi travels through the city over a three day period during Indra Jatra festival which normally fall between August to September. People will be gathered to take blessings from Kumari Devi in that period. The Kumari’s reigh ends when she has her first period or if she has any accidental loss of blood. Once she reach to that point then she will become a normal girl and she can continue her life as normal. As a retirement plan ex-Kumari Devi gets handsome dowry. In Nepal there is a belief that if any man marries a ex-kumari then it will be very unlucky. But with the fast changing time people has started forgetting this beliefs and marrying ex-kumari devi’s.