9.29.2008
Tradition and Tourism Trumps Maoist Ideology
Back in August I reported that Nepal's new Maoist-led government seemed ready to scrap the tradition of the Kumaris ("living goddesses"), calling the practice an "inessential" and "evil" symbol of the former monarchy. A decision by the country's highest court ordering the Kumari to attend school seemed to be a further harbinger of an outright ban on the practice. But it looks like the fears of this tradition being scrapped are somewhat premature.
Shreeya Bajracharya, the new Kumari of Bhaktapur.
"Nepal's new Maoist-led government has appointed a 6-year-old girl as a "living goddess" in the ancient city of Bhaktapur, for the first time snapping the link between the ancient ritual and the ousted monarchy. For centuries, the head priest of the Nepali monarchy appointed the "Kumaris" in several towns in the Kathmandu valley. But with the abolition of the monarchy in May, that position has also disappeared. Instead, officials at the state-run Trust Corporation overseeing cultural affairs appointed Shreeya Bajracharya as the new Kumari of the temple-town of Bhaktapur near Kathmandu, Deepak Bahadur Pandey, a senior official of the agency said."
So what made a government hostile to the Kumaris willing to get into the living goddess business? First off, the Nepalese people have been increasingly hostile towards Maoist attempts to curtail religious traditions, and secondly, the Kumaris are a major tourist attraction.
"The Kumaris are a major tourist attraction and are considered by many as incarnations of the goddess Kali and are revered until they menstruate, after which they return to the family and a new one is chosen."
A tourist attraction that no doubt gained even more attention after the previous Kumari of Bhaktapur visited America to promote a documentary about their lives. So enter Shreeya Bajracharya, the new Kumari of Bhaktapur.
"Shreeya was enthroned on Sunday amid prayers by Buddhist priests and will be worshipped by devout Hindus and Buddhists until reaching puberty, the girl's caretaker Nhuchhe Ratna Shakya said, adding: "She is pretty and nice." Shreeya, in a golden costume with her eyelashes blackened by mascara, was sitting on a carved throne, a butterlamp burning by her side, when a Reuters team visited her on Monday. Asked what she wanted to become in future, a quiet Shreeya just said: "nurse." She loves to eat biscuits and flattened rice, a common Nepali food, her aides said."
Unlike previous Kumari, she will no doubt attend school and have more personal freedom than previous girls in her position. Her appointment may represent an new spirit of compromise between the Maoist urge to "modernize" Nepal by ridding it of "inessential" institutions, and the desire by Nepalese Hindus and Buddhists to keep their religious traditions intact. Perhaps, like in the case of Togo's Vodou adepts, Nepal will decide that human rights and modernization can move forward without destroying religion and culture.
Labels: Buddhism, Hinduism, Kumari, Living Goddess, Nepal
8.20.2008
No More Living Goddesses For Nepal?
The religious and cultural practices of the Nepalese rarely make headlines in the West. That changed back in 2007 when a Nepali Kumari (living goddess) made a historic first journey to America in support of a documentary. That film, "Living Goddesses", explored the lives of the Kumari against a backdrop of conflict between Maoist/Communist revolutionaries and the Nepal monarchy.
Former Kumari Sajani Shakya during her American visit.
"The film begins as a sublime elegy to a private world of ritual, devotion and childish mischief. However, the extraordinary lives of these girls soon collides irreversibly with the modern world: an out-of-touch King, who survived the notorious palace massacre of 2001, wrests power for himself as a Maoist led civil war rages. Defying the King, ordinary people take to the streets demanding freedom, only to be confronted by the might of the King's army."
Since then, King Gyanendra, in negotiations with Maoists and other democracy advocates, gave up some of his sovereign power. In May, the monarchy was dissolved in the wake of an electoral landslide which gave the Communist Party of Nepal control of Nepal's House of Representatives. Nepal was declared a federal republic, and is now officially secular, dropping Hinduism as the official state religion.
In this new atmosphere, many have wondered what the fate of the Kumari would be. In the past, the Kumari were intrinsically tied to the monarchy, and in many ways helped validate monarchical rule. At first, it seemed that Nepal was going to carry on the tradition, despite hostilities from the newly appointed Maoist Prime Minister and MPs.
"This year she was called to approve the Himalayan state's interim prime minister. But the change in Nepalese politics over the past year could make the current Kumari search the last. In elections in April, former Maoist guerrilla fighters won most of the seats. The country's new leader, Prachanda, who was appointed Prime Minister yesterday, is a former communist rebel - and not a fan of girl goddesses. “The Kumari is not an essential institution for the new Nepal,” Janardan Sharma, a Maoist MP, said. Many of his colleagues regard the Kumari as an “evil symbol” linked to Hinduism's rigid caste system and incompatible with socialism."
Now a recent ruling by Nepal's supreme court seems to have doomed the tradition.
"...the country's highest court accepted the argument from a lawyer that keeping a young girl locked up in a medieval palace in Kathmandu was a violation of her fundamental rights. The court ruled against the rights of the Kumari being "be violated in the name of culture". "There should be no bar on the Kumaris from going to school and enjoying health-related rights as there are no historical and religious documents restricting Kumaris from enjoying child rights," the court said. Some analysts said the court was simply responding to the new political atmosphere in the Himalayan nation under former rebel Maoists, who are determined to end "feudal" practices."
The court's stance does seem to be a nod to the new powers in Nepal. While the living goddesses (there are several, the Kumari of Kathmandu being the most prominent) aren't formally educated, they are hardly "imprisoned", and their temporary position of power often greatly benefit the girl's family (who take part in her care and daily rituals). It seems that, unlike Togo's situation with Vodun adepts, the government and courts weren't willing to come to a compromise or modernization that would afford the Kumari more freedoms while keeping the institution in place.
It remains to be seen if this is truly the end of the Kumari throughout Nepal, or if some regions will fight to keep their living goddesses. One can only hope that "secular" to the newly empowered Maoists doesn't really mean the suppression of religion.
Labels: Buddhism, Hinduism, Kumari, Living Goddess, Nepal
7.23.2007
Updates on Past Stories
Psychic Wars in Salem: The Boston Globe does a follow-up on the uproar over the licensing of psychics in the "Witch City" of Salem, Massachusetts. It looks like the compromise measure put forward by the city council has defused (for the most part) an escalating "psychic war" that pitted established store owners and local celebrities like Laurie Cabot against the organizers of psychic fairs that take advantage of the tourist boom around Halloween.
"While the question of who is a true psychic may never be answered, a new bylaw regulating fortune tellers in Salem is winning praise from some people on both sides of the licensing issue ... Although the ordinance puts a cap on the number of readers who participate in the psychic fairs held at Halloween, it lifts the ceiling on how many shop licenses the city issues, which has angered a group of longtime shop owners. Still, others in the psychic community embrace the ordinance, saying it legitimizes the practice."
But tempers could flare again since Cabot and other long-time shop owners are unhappy that the compromise measure allows for the continued existence of psychic fairs that they say steal business from their shops. We'll most likely have to wait until the Samhain/Halloween season to see if a lasting truce has been established or if these "psychic wars" will heat up once more.
Meeting the Living Goddess: It looks like Nepali Kumari (living goddess) Sajani Shakya will be reinstated to her position as a living goddess after voluntarily going through a series of cleaning rituals to remove the "sin" of leaving her native land.
"A 10-year-old girl who is worshipped as a living goddess in Nepal has had her title reinstated after defying tradition and visiting the US. Temple authorities at her home town in Bhaktapur said the visit had tainted her purity, and that they were beginning the search for a successor. But yesterday they said she would not be stripped of her title because she was willing to undergo a "cleansing" ceremony to remove any sins."
Shakya was in the US to help promote a documentary about the Kumari entitled "Living Goddesses". The filmmakers and Shakya's parents were shocked to hear she was being stripped of her title while in America, and some suspected that it was a political ploy. But whatever the reason, it looks like the status quo is being restored (no doubt a flurry of critical press helped in that matter), and Sajani Shakya will return to her role as the physical manifestation of the goddess Taleju Bhawani (until she reaches puberty, that is).
Muggle Mallory vs Harry Potter: There seems to be the possibility that Harry Potter fans won't have their favorite opponent to kick around anymore. Laura Mallory, that famous anti-Harry Potter crusader, is retiring from her particular brand of Christian "activism" to follow a new calling.
"The mother who fought to ban Harry Potter books from her children's suburban Atlanta school district said her work on the case has allowed her to find her calling - ministering to children and young adults. "I never understood why I was involved with Harry Potter in the first place," said Laura Mallory. "I never expected all of that to happen, but I'm called, and my husband is called to this generation. We want to see them delivered from drugs, alcohol, the occult and sexual perversion." J.K. Rowling's wildly popular Harry Potter books tell stories of children with magic powers. The first six books have sold more than 325 million copies and they are the most challenged texts of the 21st century, according to the American Library Association."
But lest we think all those defeats in court have worn her down, Mallory claims she is still deciding whether to take her attempt to ban Harry Potter from her children's school district to federal court. So keep your popcorn handy, and stay tuned.
Labels: Harry Potter, Kumari, Laura Mallory, Laurie Cabot, Living Goddess, Nepal, Paganism, psychics, Salem, Witchcraft
6.17.2007
Meeting the Living Goddess
There has been a rush of recent press over the visit of a Nepali Kumari (living goddess) to the United States. Sajani Shakya, who is ten years old, is considered a living incarnation of the goddess Taleju Bhawani (who in turn can be considered an incarnation of Durga or Kali) and will remain so until she reaches puberty.
Sajani Shakya
"Even by the standards of the luminaries who sweep through Washington, the little girl in front of Lafayette Elementary School almost six miles north of the White House was special. Politicians, power brokers and the occasional celebrities who come through town hope to b respected and maybe, in a childlike place in their grown-up hearts, genuinely liked. Sajani Shakya, 10, is worshipped. In Nepal, Sajani is a living goddess, one of about a dozen such goddesses in her homeland who are considered earthly manifestations of the Hindu goddess Kali. Sajani arrived in Washington on Monday to help promote a British documentary about the living goddesses of the Katmandu Valley and to see a bit of the United States. She is the first of the Nepalese living goddesses to come to the United States because the girls live mostly in seclusion."
Shakya is one of several living goddesses profiled in a new documentary entitled "Living Goddesses" (MySpace Profile). The film looks at the tensions faced by the living goddesses during the 2005-2006 conflicts between King Gyanendra and the Maoist movement (who were eventually backed by the major political parties in Nepal), and wonders at their fate in the newly secularized Nepal.
"The film was made from 2005 to 2006, and it captures a Nepal that was roiled by protests against the monarchy and demands for establishing a democracy. The same people who took part in protests against the king also worship Sajani, Mr. Hawker said. But as Nepal modernizes and changes, Ms. Whitaker noted, parents are less keen for their daughters to become goddesses. "The potency of the cult diminishes," she said."
The future of the living goddesses remains uncertain. Some feel the practice is abusive, and have called for the abolishment of Kumari. There is also the possibility that the practice could be ended if the monarchy is completely dissolved in upcoming elections. Others (including the parents of Sajani Shakya) are attempting to find a middle path where the Kumari receive a full education and live as normally as possible outside their ceremonial duties.
"Visiting Washington this week while the film, "Living Goddess," screened at the Silverdocs documentary film festival, Sajani greets visitors at her posh hotel room wearing pink pedal pusher pants and a white T-shirt "When not doing her religious duties, she's a normal kid," said Marc Hawker, the movie's cinematographer ... At home, Sajani wears a school uniform, does homework, and plays tag with her friends in the courtyard in front of her house."
You can view a trailer for the "Living Goddess" documentary at their MySpace page, where they also have reprinted several mentions in the American press concerning Sajani Shakya's visit to America.
Labels: Buddhism, Hinduism, Kumari, Living Goddess, Nepal
