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Topics: World News, Life
Britt Jones
Topics: World News, Life
A two-year-old girl has been selected as a Nepali ‘living goddess’, and the requirements she had to pass were incredibly detailed.
The little girl, from Kathmandu, was ordained during Nepal’s Hindu festival - the longest the country sees.
There, Aryatara Shakya was chosen to be their ‘virgin’ goddess on 30 September, which will change her life for the foreseeable.
Shakya, who is two years and eight months old, was pictured being carried by her family members to a temple palace, where she will live out her days until she reaches puberty.
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This week marked the start of her tenure as the Kumari, or ‘virgin goddess’, which now means she is a real-life goddess until she reaches adolescence.
Once that happens, according to tradition, she will be regarded as a mortal once more and will leave the temple to live the rest of her life as normal.
While living out her childhood in the temple, she will only allowed to go out a couple of times each year for festivals, and can only play with a few authorised playmates.
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As for her family, this honour will provide them with a higher social standing within their clan due to her status as a goddess. All Kumari are chosen by the Shakya clans of the Newar community, but it’s not just anyone who gets picked.
So, what are those requirements?
CNN reports that Kumaris absolutely must be girls who are between the ages of two and four years old, and they can only be selected if they have unblemished skin, hair, eyes and teeth. Additionally, they cannot be afraid of the dark.
Once they are ordained, they will have to wear the colour red, pin their hair up, and have a ‘third eye’ painted on their foreheads.
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This strict requirement comes from a Nepali legend that stems from the rumour that way back when, King Jaya Prakash Malla and the Goddess Taleju used to play dice together in secret.
The only condition of the game was that it was to remain something that only the two of them knew about.
However, one day, the Queen became suspicious of her husband’s late-night disappearing acts, and followed the King to a location, where he entered a room.
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It was then that she barged in after him and found the goddess and the King playing their game, leading to the goddess disappearing forever.
While she chose not to visit the king in her original form, instead, she said she would be found again in the form of a young community girl. Thus, the tradition began of finding a girl that matched perfectly to how the King remembered Taleju.
Those things included being a virgin, having long eyelashes, a broad forehead, perfectly shaped, white teeth, being fearless, unblemished, a soft voice, a pure body and many other things.
In fact, the requirements contain 32 things little girls must possess to be considered Taleju reincarnated!
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If they are selected from the above, they’ll be revered until they reach adolescence. From then on, they’ll rejoin society.
As for Aryatara's father, Ananta Shakya, this is a great honour for the family.
According to AP, he said: “The new Kumari — who is chosen from the Shakya clans from the Kathmandu Valley — will be worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists. She was just my daughter yesterday, but today she is a goddess.
“My wife, during pregnancy, dreamed that she was a goddess, and we knew she was going to be someone very special.”