The previous post contained a link about an interesting subject: Nepal’s Living Goddess. According to Wikipedia, she is a Kumari which is a prepubescent girl which is believed to be the bodily incarnation of the goddess Taleju until she menstruates, after which it is believed that the goddess vacates her body.
Apparently serious illness or a major loss of blood from an injury are also causes for her to revert to common status.
To be a goddess they have to have:
- A neck like a conch shell
- A body like a banyan tree
- Eyelashes like a cow
- Thighs like a deer
- Chest like a lion
- Voice soft and clear as a duck’s
- Black hair and eyes
- Small and well-recessed sexual organs
- A set of twenty teeth
She will have a palace which she will leave only on ceremonial occasions. Her family will visit her rarely, and then only in a formal capacity.
In the end she is left with but a gold coin and a piece of the regal red fabric in which she has been clothed during her years as Kumari. Former Kumaris receive a pension from the state of 6000 rupees per month ($80).
Maybe being a goddess isn’t such a blessing…
The article ends with the phrase she will now have to suffer, like the other ones did. I wonder what this means, in an encyclopedia.
Bedroom Republik 