The Living Goddess Kumari of Nepal
The Kumari tradition venerates a prepubescent Newar girl as the living embodiment of the goddess Taleju Bhawani (a form of Durga). Legend holds that King Jayaprakash Malla of Kathmandu played dice nightly with the goddess Taleju, who visited him on condition of secrecy. When the king's daughter discovered them, the goddess vanished in anger, later appearing in a dream to instruct the king to worship a virgin girl of the Shakya clan instead. The chosen Kumari — selected through rigorous physical and astrological tests — lives in the Kumari Ghar palace in Kathmandu's Durbar Square, her feet neve