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Stephanie Sinclair

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  • Kumari Dangol, 9, must wear red—the school tie being her only nod to convention. In other respects, she’s like any other schoolchild, except that her teachers and fellow pupils address her as Dya Maiju—Little Girl Goddess.
    MM8303_140422_07285_RT.tif
  • Kumari Dangol waits for the start of a festival outside her home. As society evolves, so must the tradition said former kumari Chanira Vajracharya, now 19. “There are things that should be improved for the welfare of the kumaris, like greater financial support from the government to cover the expenses of rituals and the goddess’s education. And counseling to explain how her life will change after she finishes as kumari,” she said. “I’m worried that if we don’t see these changes, we may lose the tradition altogether.”
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  • Young Nepalese girls dressed as kumaris – or living goddesses – participate in Kumari Puja, an event where hundreds of girls come to be worshiped at a single ceremony. Participation is believed to help protect them from evil and give them good luck for years to come.
    MM8303_140422_04339.tif
  • Off duty, Unika Vajracharya displays the exuberance of any child, but she’s never reprimanded. In games with her little brother and older sister, she’s always the boss. No one risks the wrath of a living goddess.
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  • Kumaris can eat only certain foods and no taboo items, such as hen’s eggs or chicken. No one in contact with her can wear leather.
    MM8303_140422_03996_RT.tif
  • Unika Vajracharya, 6, is adorned with her ritual jewelry for the first time. In Nepal, prepubescent Newari girls known as kumaris are worshipped as deities, endowed with foreknowledge, able to cure the sick, fulfill wishes, and bestow blessings for protection and prosperity.
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  • Unika Vajracharya, 6, takes to her throne on her first day as the Kumari of Patan, her feet resting on an offering tray and a snake god guarding her head.
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  • Kumari Dangol, 9, reads before other students during class. While the more prominent kumaris must never leave the house, local kumaris have fewer restrictions and are allowed to attend school.
    MM8303_140422_07713.tif
  • Some activists criticize the kumari tradition as a form of child labor which hinders their freedom and education, particularly as they are confined to houses or temples and bound to strict daily rituals. However, in 2008, Nepal’s Supreme Court overruled a petition against the practice due to its cultural and religious significance.
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  • Spectators cheer as the Kumari of Tokha approaches.
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  • Like other kumaris, Kumari Dangol wears special makeup for festivals. But it’s more than makeup that changes on these occasions. Former kumaris have described feeling bigger and stronger and said that heat radiates from their foreheads.
    MM8303_140422_06776.tif
  • Kumari Dangol, 9, of Tokha, became a living goddess as an infant. A kumari’s eyes are believed to draw the beholder into direct contact with the divine. For religious festivals her forehead is painted red, a sign of creative energy.
    MM8303_140422_06370_RT.tif
  • Careful not to pollute herself by touching the ground on a day when the power of the goddess has been invoked, Kumari Dangol is carried by her father to a palanquin that will bear her above the crowds during the festival of Bisket Jatra.
    MM8303_140422_06066.tif
  • A young Nepalese girl dressed as a living goddess receives gifts during a mass worship on Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square in Kathmandu.
    MM8303_140422_05076_RT.tif
  • Selected as children, kumaris live in temples, are carried in chariots during festivals and are worshipped by thousands of Hindus and Buddhists. They retire upon puberty.
    MM8303_140422_04077-1.tif
  • Young Nepalese girls dressed as kumaris – or living goddesses – participate in Kumari Puja, an event where hundreds of girls come to be worshiped at a single ceremony. Participation is believed to help protect them from evil and give them good luck for years to come.
    MM8303_140422_04331_RT.tif
  • Unika Vajracharya sits on her throne in a shop in Lagankhel, as an attendant adjusts a silver necklace believed to imbue her with godly power. The newly selected Kumari of Patan’s first official role is to witness the ritual bathing of the image of a rain god.
    MM8303_140422_03406.tif
  • Six-year-old Unika Vajracharya days after her selection as Patan’s living goddess. A room in the house—a precious commodity in the overcrowded city of Kathmandu—must be set aside as a puja, or worship room, with a throne where the goddess can receive devotees.
    MM8303_140422_02879_RT_V2.tif
  • Unika Vajracharya leaves her home to give blessings on an auspicious day. Today there are just 10 kumaris in Nepal, nine of them in the Kathmandu Valley. They’re still selected only from families attached to certain bahals, or traditional courtyard communities, and all their ancestors must have come from a high caste.
    MM8303_140422_03252.tif
  • Chosen as the Kumari of Patan only hours earlier, Unika Vajracharya has the traditional kumari makeup put on for the first time. She isn’t used to receiving strangers, but must adjust to a role that will bring people to their knees before her.
    MM8303_140422_02210_RT.tif
  • Recently chosen as kumari, Unika Vajracharya waits in her home while her new residence is prepared. Kumaris cannot go outside, except on festival occasions, and then she has to be carried, either in someone’s arms or in a palanquin, so that her feet don’t touch the ground. Everything in the house has to be kept ritually pure.
    MM8303_140422_02068_RT_V2.tif
  • Local priests asked qualified families to put forth their daughters for selection as the next Patan Kumari. Ultimately, only two girls were put forth out of eight were approached. Many of the families chose not to allow their daughters to go through the official selection process due to the personal and financial burdens that come with the tradition.
    MM8303_140422_00863_RT_V2.tif
  • Unika Vajracharya, 6, and Anjila Bajracharya, 4, go through the selection process to determine the next Patan Kumari. Unika was chosen that evening.
    MM8303_140422_01212_RT_V2.tif
  • Nepalese military watch over the blood sacrifice of goats and buffaloes early on outside the Kumari Chen in Kathmandu for one of the last festivals of the year, known as Chaite Dashain. The Kathmandu Kumari doesn’t witness the event herself as she’s not supposed to witness sacrifices – but it’s done in her honor.
    MM8303_140422_00145_RT_V2.tif
  • Parents present at Kumari Puja said the function was the beginning of community life of their daughters. Despite being a Newari festival, girls from other castes also attended the ceremony. The word kumari literally means “virgin” in Nepali.
    MM8303_140422_04405_RT_V2.tif
  • In the family living room, Unika plays with her younger brother as her parents debate whether to offer her for selection as a kumari. The incumbent girl had just been dismissed because she got her first period.
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  • Ramesh Vajracharya carries his daughter, Unika, after her selection as kumari. She is wearing her favorite yellow fleece hoodie with Snoopy on the back, one of the last times she was allowed to wear it. A living goddess can wear only red—the color of creative energy, usually reserved for married women.
    MM8303_140422_01607_RT.tif
  • Unika Vajracharya was on her throne when the earthquake struck in April and, according to her family, entered a trance-like state and reassured them that they were safe.
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