Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Goddess lives in Nepal (audio)

Amber Larson, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Sonia Narang, TheWorld.org (BBC), 7-23-13
Kumari Devi, the child Samita Bajracharya, Nepal (Instagram/SoniaNarang)
Kumari Devi with mysterious redheaded devi and fans (AFP/Getty Images/Daily Mail)
  
The Living Goddess is carried to a local festival. (Photo: Sonia Narang)
The Living Goddess (Sonia Narang)
Last year, during a visit to Nepal, Sonia Narang dropped by the home of a "Living Goddess," called a Kumari Devi [a prepubescent female child believed to embody the Goddess Durga].
  
The Kumari’s attendants and family were preparing to carry her through the town to a local festival, and she was dressed in elaborate makeup and colorful silk clothes. The elders soon whisked her away to the festival, and Narang followed.

 
She saw locals, young and old, come out of their homes to seek blessings from this 10-year-old girl, believed to be [an incarnation or embodiment] of the Hindu Goddess Durga. She blessed them all by dabbing a large dot [tilak] of red powder on their foreheads.
 
Through it all, she didn’t say a word. Narang wondered more about her life, so she returned to the Kumari’s house a few days later. Her mother, Shobha, welcomed her in and sat down for an interview.

They chatted in Hindi as she spoke about how difficult life was for her daughter, Samita. Everyday, streams of people come into their home to worship her... More

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