After some time of seeing young girls in their mother’s arms and prams with unusual amounts of makeup on, it finally hit me.
Their parents had them emulating the appearance of the Kumari.
We had visited the residence of the Kumari Devi in Banastapur Durbar Square at the Kumari Ghar, and waited for an audience with the Kumari.
She is believed to be the incarnation of Taleju, and the living representation of the divine female energy.
On the day that we were granted an audience with the Kumari she sat there playing on a mobile phone while chewing gum; such goddess-like behavior.
We had heard stories of the poor husbands who married a girl who was a previous Kumari and found they had married themselves into ungrateful servitude.
It would seem that marrying a goddess does not rank highly for many Nepali men.
