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Stephanie Sinclair

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  • The current Royal Kumari Matina Shakya, 9, is taken out as part of the annual Seto Machindranath Chariot Festival. These living goddesses are young, pre-pubescent girls who are considered to be incarnations of the Hindu goddess of power, Kali.
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  • Worshipers try to touch 9-year-old Matina Shakya, the Royal Kumari, as she is brought back to her residence after a procession around the city during the Seto Machindranath Chariot Festival in Kathmandu.
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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.
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  • 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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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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