I believe in something. I know there is someone stronger than us, who can create or destroy. It’s like a will to say: “Ehi, I’m here. You have to look after me.” This may sound pathetic or banal, surely I’m not the first one who says that. And not the last one as well. The point is, if a dimension over us exists, we need to meet them (I use “them” to be gender-neutral). Here, in Kathmandu, maybe someone is trying to get closer to the Universe. I think it’s because of their religions. So, my ideas about what this connection means are built on a slippery surface, I still don’t understand how to become a believer.
Here there are a lot of Gods and Goddesses. But one of the most important ones is a living virgin goddess, Kumari. She has to be a virgin, but Nepalese people don’t know how to prove it, so she must not had her first menstruation. The Kumaris are young pre-pubescent girls who receive the power of goddesses Kali and Taleju. Kumari is the human embodiment of goddess Taleju (she has four heads and ten arms) and symbolizes power and protection.
She is a little girl who needs to have 32-body perfections to be a Kumari: her hair and eyes should be very black, she should have little hands and feet, small and well-recessed sexual organs and a set of twenty teeth. There is a selection beyond the look: they put in a dark room for one night every girl who wants to become the next Kumari and the bravest one wins. In this room a lot of things happen, like sounds or smells, they hang bulls’ bloodying head and slaughtered goats, masked men dancing on top of the blood show up; so the space turns into a creepy hole. Since at every celebration or meeting she has to be neutral, she has to be able to not communicate any feeling.
After the choice, the Kumari in Kathmandu lives in a palace, Kumari Ghar. She can’t leave her place except for special occasions, and her feet are never allowed to touch the floor. Her smile brings good luck, even the fast ones. She always dresses in red and has a heavy makeup on the face. Every day the believers go and pray for her protection, but she never sees them or someone else different from her servants. She is considered omniscient, so she doesn’t need to learn anything. Now things are changing and she can meet teachers and learn something about the main topics, like math or English. This happens in the capital city, in Patan it’s different, Kumari is allowed to go to school and meet people.
But, in any case, when the period comes, they have to leave the role of the Goddess; the legends want purity, and the blood isn’t pure at all. Many former Kumaris have been facing a tough situation in coping with the world when they step outside their role. They find it strange to face the people when they were kept away from them. Also, the former Kumaris have difficulty to find a husband and to build a family: the superstition is that the men who marry the Kumaris are destined to die young. Obviously, that’s not true, but the youngest Kumaris aren’t married.
Talking about marriages… The other day we found ourselves in a celebration in Patan. A lot of little girls were dressed in red, asking for offers. They were beautifully dressed and with gorgeous makeup, sit with crossed legs. Raju, our guide, told us that every little girl before their menarche has to do that, “it’s a tradition“.
Bahra Tayegu is the name of this ceremony. It’s the second marriage for girls with the Sun God (the first one is with bael fruit). It is a coming of age ritual in the Newar community of Nepal for girls between the ages of 7 to 13, before their first menstruation. The little girls need to be purified before the “big day” and they are put in a dark room for 11 days, away from sunlight and male contacts; the 12th is the day of the Bahra ceremony and they are ready and pure.
Now, what I love about travelling is reaching out to other cultures with a different lens. We leave everything else to the gods.
Giulia Carloni
(testo in italiano su Io Sono Minoranza)
©2020 Il Grande Colibrì
images: elaborations from Urluvlyfren (CC BY-SA 3.0) / from Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission Belur Math (CC0)
