Nepal unites in defence of its living goddesses

The autocratic King of Nepal and his Left-wing opponents have united in opposing an attempt to modernise the cult of the capital's Kumaris, or living goddesses.

A case filed in the supreme court by an activist lawyer, Pundevi Mahajan, has provoked fierce reactions by claiming that the tradition denies the young girls their right to education and keeps them illegally confined in temples and Kumari houses.

Traditional community leaders, who asked not to be named, said the royal palace had asked them to press to have the case dropped.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Mukti Pradhan, a former central committee member of the Maoist Party, which is waging a guerrilla war against the monarchy, has written newspaper articles denouncing the case.

The cult is a feature of the unique mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism that exists in Kathmandu. Although the Kumaris are chosen from the Buddhist Shakya caste, they are regarded as Hindu goddesses.

Criteria for selection are that the child must have the body of a banyan tree, the chest of a lion and the voice of a duck, besides 29 other "bodily perfections". In practice, these qualities are attributed on the basis of a horoscope.

Chanira Shakya, 10, has been a living goddess for five years. In her elaborate dress and make-up, she spends her days on her bronze throne under a red canopy surrounded by plates of red paste, incense and petals in her family's modern home.

She receives a trickle of worshippers. Sometimes she presides at festivals but she does not go to school and is not allowed out to play. Officially, friends are allowed to visit, but no one does.

Her mother said: "They may be afraid because she has special power."

When Chanira reaches puberty, her life will abruptly return to normal while priests and astrologers choose her successor.

Of the 11 Kumaris in the Kathmandu area, Chanira, the Kumari of Patan, is one of the most important and one of the most confined.

Two United Nations committees in Geneva, which monitor treaties on the rights of women and children, say the Kumaris are denied their rights.

Miss Mahajan said: "Chanira is a prisoner. I want to give her equality, freedom."

She said that she only wanted the tradition to be "modernised", pointing out that minor Kumaris led relatively ordinary lives. But that has done nothing to appease her critics.

There have been personal attacks on her on the internet and members of her community have whispered that she is the tool of shadowy political and religious interests. Former Kumaris have refused to meet her.

Naresh Bir Shayka, a community leader who has denounced the case, said: "Some people think [the cult] should be improved or abolished because of child rights and all that. Only people who do not know anything are making this hubbub."

Anup Singh Suwal, a community leader who opposed the case at first, described how meeting a former Kumari had changed his mind.

"She could not speak her mother tongue well," he said. "She could laugh but not freely. In so many ways she was not a normal girl. It really hurt me."