Living Goddesses Our World

a glimpse of the young girls who live as goddesses.

Worship and feared by thousands, this young girlies are living

goddess. The latest in a long line of goddesses or Kumaris that goes

back centuries. She is confined to the temple and

has little contact with the outside world. She can't speak to anyone and

her feet must not touch the ground. Puberty is the end of her reign and

she must leave the temple. For some, the shock is too much and they

refused to leave. It has been 60 years. Doesn't your IT want to start

immortal life, a normal life? Now campaigners are asking

if becoming a goddess is in the best That leaves a huge mental scar that

affect their life forever. This is Patan, one of

Nepal's largest cities, and a focal point of an ancient

and controversial tradition. Hundreds of people have

gathered in the streets, hoping to see someone they believe

is holy and can perform miracles. Someone who is both

feared and worshipped. This eight-year-old

girl is who they have Revered by thousands,

she is considered a living There are even people waiting

for her outside of the temple, to give her offerings before

she's taken inside. She was selected to become

a goddess at the age of six and will remain one until the day

of her first period. When she does, her feet must

not touch the ground, That's where the rest of the rituals

are going to happen tonight, And she will come out

a few hours later. Nepal is a predominantly Hindu

country, but with a significant The two religions have coexisted

and intermingled for centuries. They share priests and temples

and they both worshipped the kumari. Today is the eighth day of Dashain,

a festival in which the goddess Durga is worshipped

in her many forms. The kumari is believed

to be a living embodiment That is the window to

the living goddess's room. That is where she is sitting

and where she gets worshipped I'm having to wait until she's ready

to see me because today she is very, very busy, maybe because it's one

of the biggest Nepalese She lives here in the kumari Palace

and receives visitors in this room. She's not allowed to speak to anyone

outside of her family as long as she's a living goddess,

and that includes me. We're waiting for a lady in her 60s,

and she was a kumari I'm very curious to find out

how things were for her She became a kumari at the age

of four and remained one This is a picture of her

when she was a kumari. Here, she says she was

around five years old. Was it not difficult to be

away from your parents? Though they could visit,

they couldn't take her home, so the young Kumari was brought up

by priests and caretakers. The role of a living goddess

is to protect her city, and the tradition is believed

to have started sometime There are only three official

Kumaris in the whole country, and they are all in the Kathmandu

Valley. The living goddesses of Patan have

always come from the same small Buddhist community

of about 115 eligible families. Shaneera was a goddess for ten

years, from the age of five until she got her periods

at the age of 15. Since Kumari is regarded

as a goddess, she's not supposed She is called something

that means "goddess". And dad had to perform

a special offering everyday. She has to be kept pure

in every way, and she has But the goddesses aren't just

respected, they are worshipped. Although Kumaris in the past have

been as young as one and a half years old,

they are expected to act as the link between

the worshippers and the gods. Everyone comes with an offering

and then they just pray for it. Official people, they would

come to come for a job. Someone for a visa, flight,

for passing an exam, But then, as a child, like,

you have to accept these offerings and you have to consume

a part of it. When you just take a sip

on your lip, it's not It's just showing that

you're accepting it. Maybe because of the power of God,

you don't feel dizzy. Like other Kumaris, her childhood

was very different to that of most I didn't have friends because people

would come entry me as a goddess. They would just come, go down,

and take blessings and then go. But I have two younger brothers,

so I used to play with them. My brothers were mentally prepared

that she is a goddess and you have And neither is moving

around, or laughing, The living goddess is expected

to sit motionless and expressionless A challenge for any child,

even when daddy is right there. That's why a key criteria

for becoming a Kumari is calmness. This man is part of the committee

tasked with choosing the Kumaris. He has been involved

in selecting the last eight. When a new Kumari is needed,

eligible families are invited to bring their daughters to this

very courtyard for The selected girl is then

taken to the royal priest for further inspections,

before a final decision is made. I remember being carried

to the royal priest's house. And the royal priest's wife

was asking something and she was checking me,

my hands and everything, And then she put a tikha on my head,

declaring that she is going The girls' lives change dramatically

and so do their families'. Financially, the family gets

through with a bit of help from the government,

a monthly allowance, Offerings paid by visitors

are another source of income. No matter how young the goddesses

are, everything they do No matter how young the goddesses

are, everything they do My mum tells me that

I used to cry a lot, 24 hours a day for four days,

continuously weeping She consoled me with the toys

and she asked me, what's And she thought that

because I was stopped from going outside and I had

to follow a lot of rules, But the priest and the devotees,

they had already forecast something A massacre of the royal

family occurred on the 1st The crown prince went on a rampage

in the Royal Palace in Kathmandu, killing his parents,

the king and queen, three of his siblings and

several other people. The country was left

shocked and traumatised. On the first day, I heard

that the royal massacre happened. So my mum said that you really

forecast a bad omen. Many Nepalese believe that this

prediction was the goddess working The former kumaris rarely get

together, but they share a belief that they all had a very special

connection to the deity. Since we are like recognised

as a goddess, we can feel the prayers and the feeling

of the people, the faith of the people that made us

so powerful and the power But all this comes to a grinding

halt the day a kumari I told my mother and she said that

now you are no longer a kumari. The feeling was a mixture of both

curiosity and sadness. Sadness because I was no longer

a goddess, and curiosity to join in the new world, and how I would be

able to cope with the society As a new goddess arrives,

the old one must leave. Although this former kumaris only

about 11 or 12 years old, she must endure a very

public rejection. The purity dies away

when you experience your period. The way I put it is,

where there is God, women Be at the temples, be it

the religious practice in their own home, in the kitchen,

because in the kitchen, the food is there and if a woman

with a period touch is the food, She has to sit away from the others

and then have her food. The kumari must begin her

transformation from holy goddess She must learn to make friends,

walk around town and go to school, And adjusting to this fall

from grace can be hard. It was suddenly a world

turned upside down for me. The morning you were worshipped

as a goddess, and the next When I went to school for the first

time, my friends were very curious They asked me questions like,

do you feel some powers? Do you find it that you find a lot

of friends a lot faster No, my friends were

scared of me also. And the teacher used

to bring all the friends It must be so kind of weird

because all these people used to come and worship

you and you didn't talk to them, And now you're in the

same school as them. Just a two-minute walk

was quite difficult for me. I needed my parents to hold my

hands, and I felt that the streets The tradition of living

goddesses is one of secrets It's believed that anyone marrying

a former kumari will die Yet many have married

without incident. But there is one rumour that may

have some truth to it. This is done every year

after being a kumari. The kumari is taken to the temple

in the dark room, to do this. Human rights organisations have been

trying for many years to get the practice of living

goddesses regulated, because they think it can

harm young children, That is undoubtedly against

the rights of these little children. I mean, they are just four years

old, five years old. That leaves a huge mental scar that

affects their life forever. Maybe that's one reason

they probably don't want to talk Whatever the reality

of their experiences, most former kumaris only

have good things to say, I miss my life so much,

being a goddess. You are more evolved

than the normal child in a family. Yet you are a well-known person

in society and the whole nation Yet Shaneera is keen to start

a support group for ex-goddesses, to help them adjust

to their mortal life. These former kumaris have managed

to build a good life themselves. They have an education, jobs,

and some are married. But one kumari has not

been able to move on. This kumari I'm about to meet

is very different to the others. She was selected when

she was two years old, So almost all her life,

she's been a kumari. We have a rule that

a kumari leaves her status And in her case, she never

have the menstruation. But they kumari is more

like a little girl, it is preferred And that is why under

pressure from the committee, we had to have another

official kumari. But she said that I would be staying

within the same rules And that is why our people

still believe in her hand they do It was forecast at

the time of her birth. There was a priest and he forecast

that she would be the long life Doesn't your auntie want to start

a mortal life, a normal life? No.

Why not? She could have left her status

when she was officially dismissed. Why?

Why is she so keen? Maybe because she still believes

that she has the goddess in her. Some human rights organisations

worry about the effects years of being a living goddess can

have on young girls. They applied to Nepal's

Supreme Court to declare The court declined to do so,

but did ask for reforms. Campaigners, however,

still assert the girls The rights that I'm talking

about is basically the right to go to school, to learn with other kids,

to grow in the same manner as other kids, to make sure that

if they have a health issue, it health problem, they are allowed

to go to hospitals, for medical checkups, to the hospitals,

and not that... Because in some systems they are not

allowed to go to hospitals, the doctors have to come

to the kumari house. But they can do little,

because neither the community, nor the former goddesses

themselves, are complaining. But this evolution may be overtaken

by the demands of modern living. This kumari tradition is very unique

and it is a very unique culture, and that is why I believe it

has to be preserved. But I'm afraid that the candidates

who apply for this kumari tradition I went to see the selection process

and I was very sad to see that only So only two girls were volunteered

by their family to become kumaris. And how many were there before,

like when you were a kumari? The tradition of goddesses goes

back many generations, But it seems like fewer

and fewer parents are willing to sacrifice their daughter's

carefree childhood for the chance Even if they think it offers

a link to the divine. Yesterday was a disappointingly

cloudy day, but it was not cloudy We had some sunshine,

and the best of this was flying