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The living goddesses of Nepal

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti

Nestled amidst the Himalayan mountain range and endowed with breathtaking beauty, Nepal, the only Hindu kingdom in the world is a tapestry of cultural diversity.Home to 23 million people representing 70 ethnic groups, this land of splendour has never experienced war or conflict due to religious grounds.

This enchanting Himalayan kingdom with, its rich cultural landscape and the legends that make Nepal an integral part of the 'Old World,' I was determined to understand the cultural ethos of this unique nation. So began a journey to discover the architectural marvels - the thousands of scattered archaeological sites and the vihars and bahals that made the Kathmandu valley one of its kind.

The culture buff in me was completely roused as I visited Patan and Bhaktapur, two of the three ancient cities of the resplendent valley, accompanied by Rima and Nita, my two lovely Nepali friends who happily played tourist guide to me.

It is Rima who thought that I should see the " Living Goddess," after a series of visits to many a place of unique beauty and worship.

My reading on this predominantly Newar community practice had only prepared insufficiently for what I learned by meeting with the 'living goddess' in Patan.

In this land of beauty and diversity,  80% of the population are Hindus, another 7 % are Buddhists, with both religions being thoroughly involved in the practice of worshiping a goddess in living form.

On my way to the old crumbling city building down a narrow street in Patan, Rima told me that this Kumari was exceptional. She was the only one who had the privilege of living with her own family, a luxury denied to all chosen Kumaris as they are made to occupy a bahal maintained by the government.

To this utterly religious and ritualistic Hindu community, Kumari the virgin goddess represents the state deity in Nepal. She is also known as Thaleju or Kumari Keti. People worship as the incarnation of Kanya Kumari, another name for the Durga in her pure form.

The Patan Kumari dwelt in a dingy and dirty flat. We took a narrow stairway to reach the upper floor, entered a dimly lit hall, home to the Kumari family.

Poverty spoke. Scattered all over were garments of young children, and the dusty floor was full of cheap toys, perhaps the belongings of Kumari's young siblings

Patan Kumari was resting after lunch when we visited her, having completed her daily rituals of blessings people and attending ceremonies at temples, part of her routine work.

But my foreign status made her young mother sympathetic to our cause, and in five minutes appeared the Kumari.

Breathtakingly beautiful

She was breathtakingly beautiful, slim, fair and feminine. She looked extremely serene and contained for a seven-year-old.  She had heavy make-up, a third eye drawn in her forehead and an elaborate headdress and a colourful costume which was only part of her usual regalia.

As she occupied her elaborate chair, specially prepared for her to occupy when blessing people, I could see the dignity with which she held herself.

But she would not speak a word, and her mother gently explained that interviews or photographs were prohibited. "She could be photographed only at festival time when she appears in public," she said.

The young goddess blessed Nita and Rima, by placing sindhur on their forehead, as they touched her feet with their foreheads. Then, she lit josticks and held them close to the devotees' faces in a silent prayer.  The small ritual over, Kumari immediately disappeared.

But the little episode, the absolute poverty engulfing this young goddess's life whetted my appetite to find more about the strange ritual.  How do these girls become goddesses and what becomes of her after her eventual disqualification to be a goddess?

In this land of elaborate rituals and practices, the practice of worshiping a young maiden has been a practice since time immemorial. The Hindus of Nepal believe in worshiping an ordinary pre-pubescent girl as a source of supreme spiritual power, a tradition that remains very much a part of their lives.

Like the ritual, the selection of candidates is also an interesting process. Usually, a candidate is selected to serve a Hindu temple of high religious standing, and this blessed individual should necessarily hail from a Buddhist family of the Sakya clan, the clan Siddhartha Gautam was born to.

It is said that the Vajrayana sect of the Mahayana Buddhism was responsible for establishing the tradition of worshipping a girl as a living goddess.

The selection process itself is a highly tantric ritual. The girl is called upon to pass a preliminary test of being interviewed by the Hindu priests and then, examined for 32 attributes of a maiden qualifying for the status of a goddess.

This girl between four to seven years is made to confront a demon god inside a darkened room where buffalo heads are scattered, demon -like mask dancers perform and weird noises are made and drums are beaten in eerie fashion.  All these to test the willpower of the poor girl. If she does not get terrified and withstands it all, the girl then qualifies for human veneration.

The girl will perform various elaborate religious rituals and would even bless the king, who is believed to be the incarnation of God Vishnu, the preserver.

The girl who sits on this pedestal of worship during Indra Jatra, shall step out in all her bejewelled splendour to travel through the older parts of Kathmandu City, most of which have been declared world heritage sites. She will travel in a three-tiered chariot accompanied by Ganesh and Bhairab during the three days.

She would also bless the king during this elaborate ritual, which is a tradition that started off with the first king of the Shah Dynasty.

Disqualification

The period of veneration comes to an end with her first menstruation, and if she is unlucky, even a minor scratch which makes the girl bleed could disqualify her.

The predominance of the Kumari cult is more distinct amongst the Newaris, a large community in Nepal.  Where you find the Newari settlements, you could also find a Kumari at the bahals.

The most famous Kumari temple is situated right across the historical Gaddi Baithak Hall at Basantapur in Kathmandu. There are different Kumari in Patan, Bhaktapur, Bungmati, Thimi and other predominantly Newar towns.

The goddess-house Kumari Ghar besides the Kathmandu Darbar Square is a storied house of magnificent and intricate woodcarvings.

While a girl is worshipped as a living deity, a government trust fund bears all her expenses and the upkeep of her caretakers. The goddess cannot attend school and may get a tutor to her place, usually selected by the government. The only different goddess is the Patan goddess whom I met, who was allowed to continue living with her biological family.   For her fortune, her own mother has been granted state recognition as the goddess's caretaker.

But something about the tantric ritual itself pulls at one's heartstrings. The young girl is expected to maintain a regal demeanour. And the list of denials, despite her status as a god is scary.

The goddess will not know the joy of playing and would have no playmates.  Denied the right to attend a school, the only means of education is through a private tutor.

Deeply traditional, the Nepalese still do not see the denial of education and association of peers during her formative years as a denial. People told me that a goddess was goddess, and she need not have the ordinary life, for she is the 'venerated one.'

"Schools are for the ordinary. But the Kumaris are creations of God" told many a Newari as I questioned them about the practice.

But beyond her days as a goddess, life is bleak for many of them. The girls are never meant to marry. The Nepali men believe that a curse would befall them if they marry these girls.

Denied the worldly pleasures, as adults, they have no developed skill to seek employment. Eventually, they are devoured by poverty, and some end up on the streets, their former glory and status of veneration a thing of the past.

The very society that once worshipped the young girl for her purity turn a blind eye, as does the government which withdraws financial support to Kumari as she reaches puberty, leaving these goddesses to grapple with the daily life in a consumer society.

Special place for special children

By Risidra Mendis

The first cries of her baby and the feeling of holding her new born child for the first time is every mother's dream. But while some mothers are blessed with that perfect baby others give birth to children with minor deformities.

But due to the pressure of society where a deformed child is looked upon as a burden to their very existence, many parents tend to desert or abandon them. However in another corner of the world where compassion and kindness still exists, a group of people are trying even at this very moment to help those disabled and deformed children.

Ward 6 of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children is just another busy unit. Known as the largest children's hospital in the world, this ward is probably one of the most important as it caters to the expressible needs of the handicapped children.

According to Dr. B. J. C. Perera this ward tries very hard to bring hope to these children who are considered by many to be a lost cause in society. "Even though normal babies learn to smile, babble, sit up, walk, run, speak, and interact socially, and gradually acquire the skills required for education, activity and sports, sadly and ironically a significant section of children in any community are somewhat different" Dr. Perera said.

Most are abandoned

"Even though we don't realise it there are many children with different types of paralysis and other disabilities, who need intensive physiotherapy and occupational therapy. But sadly quite a few of these children have been abandoned in hospitals by their parents, due to ignorance and financial difficulty" he said.

According to Dr. Perera most often these children end up at Ward 6 of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital. In this unit a dedicated staff with the knowledge, commitment and motivation needed to attend on these children work round the clock in order to bring some relief to their suffering.

Rehabilitated

In many cases children with severely crippled and incapacitated deficiencies have been rehabilitated to the extent that they become useful citizens of our country. However the knowledge and experience of the hardworking staff alone is not enough as different types of sophisticated equipment are also needed to train the children to walk and adjust to a normal life.

Some of this equipment is expensive and others have to be designed according to an individual child. An already cash strapped health system tries in vain to make every possible effort to provide for the needs of this unit, but it is a continuous battle against all odds.

According to Dr. Perera this unit needs a constant flow of money to cater to the many and varied needs of handicapped children. With this in mind a voluntary organisation and a trust fund named The Friends of Disabled Children was set up recently at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital.

The objectives of this organisation are to improve the situation of these children through funds and donations from volunteers. This unit also handles other projects which is why a steady flow of finances needs to come in.

According to Dr. Perera even though this unit has some funds these have been utilised to renovate the ceiling and the modifying of the toilets. However this unit needs more finances for their many future projects. Therefore anybody willing to contribute towards this worthy cause could contact Dr. Nihal Gunathilleke, consultant rheumatologist of this unit at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital.

•  Most teenagers are on the dance floor at sweet sixteen but this teenager is different...

On the floor at sweet sixteen

By Ranee Mohamed

At 16 years, he should be playing cricket or football with his friends. But this 16 year old is being kicked around by everybody in the house. Not that they want to kick him,  but he is crawling on the floor of  their small  house  where  life is miserably dark inside and they keep tripping over him all the time. This 'hell-hole' that they call home is merely a long  mud floor with a place only to cook. There is a space separated with a white cloth and this is where some of them sleep.

Home they say is where the heart is, but this home can break your heart. No. 2, Paramananda Vihara Mawatha, Colombo 13, is in a row of houses belonging to the CMC. It is a shocking array of  poverty in the heart of  Kotahena that is Colombo 13. In the other nearby houses are mothers and curious little hungry children. All of them earnestly waiting for some  Santa Claus to come anytime of the year.

Such misery and poverty in Colombo is unimaginable, but  visit this place and we begin to count our blessings, however small they may be. Poor, unhappy people with dishevelled hair and minds stare out in expectation. But nothing seems to come their way in this hidden corner of Kotahena.

An unhappy woman

Ganthumathy is a woman who has known much unhappiness. Her elder child Santharoopan had also died due to ill health. "Now I have Kantharoopan. He is my youngest son and he can neither walk nor talk and I have nothing to give him, not even one square meal a day," she cried.

Mention any kind of food and Kantharoopan starts whining from the floor. He is unable to talk but he is able to show his feelings in a touching way. He laughs when he sees food and cries when he is hungry. These days the tears of this 16 year  old  wet the muddy ground. It is raining and their floor is muddy. This means that Kantharoopan has to crawl on the muddy ground. His mother and grandmother have placed a piece of gunny sack on the ground for his comfort, but this is dripping.

As his mother tries to cut some leaves that they have picked from the roadside to make a midday meal out of the greens, Kantharoopan hovers around her feet. He makes strange noises and hides his head coyly and then looks up smiling again. But nobody is in the mood for play in this house. They never are.

Always, there is want, misery and empty expectation in their heart and mind.

"I really do not know what to do. We have no source of income and we have no hope of achieving anything," said Ganthumathy. This unhappy mother wants to do so much for her child. She wants to give him a bed and the food and clothes that he needs. From time to time, Kantharoopan who is suffering from brain damage gets very ill. But there is nothing that the family can do for him.  He needs to go to a doctor. He needs treatment and care.

There is nobody to tell and nobody who wants to listen. They receive no charity because they are not in an institution. They cannot beg because they are not beggars.

Some say heaven and hell is on earth. And it seems that Kantharoopan is in hell. Hungry, ill and unable to move away from this muddy ground, this 16 year old is different from other teenagers - he  has never gone out, never had friends to play with and never seen any of the films, games and fun that this modern world has to offer a 16 year old. While other teenagers in Colombo are on the dance floor at 16, Kantharoopan lies on this bare floor.

Thosai with water

"He has to lie on his face most of the time and sometimes he suffers from a severe stomach ache because of this," said his mother. "He loves to eat good food, but he has never tasted a square meal in his life. Sometimes we are able to buy him a thosai and smash it using water and put it into his mouth. Sometimes when we can afford we buy him a small banana. But this can happen only on a very lucky day," she went on.

When Kantharoopan has to move, he has to move his whole body and this requires strength and stamina. But Kantharoopan continues to crawl on the floor, at most times on an empty stomach. When he is tired, he stops and gets into a pensive mood and watches the earth-worms dip by on his slimy ground.

This is the misery that surrounds us. The good food and  good living  and glittering lights in the city of Colombo have blinded us to the misery and sadness of human beings around us.

The Love Commandment

The holiness code of Fr. Michael Rodrigo's life, vision and mission

 In commemoration of the 15th death anniversary of Fr. Michael Rodrigo OMI which falls today

The cross is not something we hang on the wall or round our neck. Jesus hung on it first. It was the Roman Empire's chief instrument of political torture. So we must be ready to die for our people if and when the time comes. He died at 33 because he stuck out his neck for people, for the poor, the down and out, and the distressed....

These words of Fr. Michael Rodrigo reveal the distinctive mark of his life and work. His commitment to his master - Jesus Christ emerged through his love and commitment to his people, which set him apart as a model of discipleship.

These thoughts come to one's mind on the occasion of the 15th death anniversary of Fr. Mike, as he was known to those who were close to him. His life was similar to that of his master, Jesus Christ, for he too sacrificed his life for the cause of the marginalised and dispossessed people of rustic Uva he worked with. It was a commitment borne out with his involvement with situations that called for effective love and concern. That was the reason why he opted not to proceed to Paris where he was offered a prestigious post in a university there. Not for him was the glamour and glory of a life of relative luxury. For that was not the way his Master lived and died. This comes out so well in a poem he wrote called Gush Wind For My Flame which reveal the desire of disciple _ to be one with his master.

"Were I the oil; And you the living flame, Lord;We'll burn together unto death;For death is life."

Fr. Mike's call is traced back to Bishop Leo Nanayakkara's invitation to him to be engaged in his mission at Sevaka Sevana in Bandarawela in working out a programme of contextual theology for ministers in his diocese. Having carried out this apostolate in the best possible way at his command, he took another step in the direction of identifying totally with the suffering of the people of the villages of Uva. For this purpose he set up Suba Setha Gedera in Alukalawita in lower Uva from which he evolved his action reflection process that became his philosophy of life.

Three gospels

It is in this context that we wish to present below in his memory this 'Love Commandment' drawn by him from a wide range of biblical sources which encapsulates Fr. Mike's own vision and mission until his untimely death in the hands of a yet unknown assasin on that fateful day of 10 November, 1987, thus:

The Love Commandment is given to us in the three gospels: Matthew 22: 34-40 Mark 12: 28-34 and in Luke 10: 25-28 and added to the Lukean version in the Parable of the Good Samaritan from verse 20 following it. In Mark's Version it is taken up in the context of the essential commandment, the basic commandment, the one prescription of the law that sums up the rest. It is in answer to this that Jesus formulated his Love Commandment.

Jesus is doing a number of things. Firstly, what is significant is that Jesus has brought love of neighbour on part _ with the love of God. This is most clear in the Matthew version of the great commandment, where it says the first commandment is 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and a second is like the first - Matthew 22: 37-40. Both are aspects of the great commandment.'

Secondly, Jesus generalises the concept of neighbour. Neighbour in Leviticus 19: 18 in the Hebrew Bible (HB) is a fellow Israelite. Four different Hebrew words are used: a brother, a companion, a son of your own people and neighbour. Love does not extend outside this.

There are three categories of people who are powerless, hence specially loved by God; the widow, the orphan and the stranger. This would be the limit of love in the Hebrew Bible. If you love your neighbour, you will love the refugee. However, there is no injunction that you have to love the gentile and those outside your people. The HB says that you must love God, and Jesus says you must love God and love your neighbour. When we come to the early Church, to the follower of Jesus you find a surprising and remarkable change. You could read the whole  New Testament (NT) and apart from these references you will not find a command to love God. The great Deuteronomic text is not mentioned again in the NT. The Love of God is rarely spoken, of . It is always connected with love of neighbour. Matthew's theology in 19:19 "love your neighbour as yourself" in Romans 13: 8-10 all other commandments are summed up in the one commandment. "You shall love your neighbour as yourself, in Galations 5:14 the whole law is fulfilled in "You shall love your neighbour as yourself and in James 2: 8-12 the law of the kingdom is "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and all your mind", and the great text of the New Testament is "Love your neighbour as yourself."

God is love

In I John 4: 7-12 he declares "My dear people let us love one another, since love comes from God, and everyone who loves is born of God. Anyone who fails to love, can never have known God, because God is love. If there is not love in our lives, there is no God. In this the love of God is made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, so that we might live through him. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a reconciliation for our sins". In verses 11 and 12 we go back to our exhortation. If God so loved us, we ought to love another. No person has ever seen God, therefore we cannot speak of loving God. But if we love one another then God abides in us. His love is made perfect in us.

Love comes from God as is concretised in the neighbour who is the sacrament of God's presence. Incarnation means that God taken "flesh", takes up his dwelling in us as humankind, is the 'locus' or is the place where Jesus encounters God. What happened to Jesus of Nazareth has an effect on all of us. And what happens to one individual in humankind happens to all and we are no more isolated individuals as a whole. We are intimately bound together in our origin and in our destiny. For what happens to one of us, happens to all of us. What happens to Jesus of Nazareth happens to all of us. God is present to all our people.

In the Bible the human person is essentially a living being, for Yahweh God fashioned man as dust from the soil and breathed into his nostril a breath of life (Genesis) and thus man became a living being (Genesis 2 and 7). To understand that the human person is a material component is an extremely important biblical concept i.e. matter makes human beings. Then such a system of thought sees people and not souls. So in the Bible we don't save souls to send them to heaven, and we don't profess our faith in Heaven. Rather we profess our faith in the resurrection of the body. This resurrection is a resurrection of the whole human person. We believe in the new heavens and the new earth. We believe in a new history, for which this history is a preparation. Therefore all our energies would be channeled towards creating a new heaven and a new earth saving souls.

Justice is the historical expression of effective love today. "Today there is no love possible without justice" (Synod of Justice 1971).

Effective love today calls for a change of structures - which are oppressive to people making them victims of the system. The poorest sections of the population are being still further impoverished by the persistent sharp increases in the rate of inflation. The market is an idol which feeds on the blood of our children, of women who are exploited and forced into prostitution, of our disillusioned young people and our abandoned old people. The system dehumanises people, breaks up families, destroys cultures and disrupts the relationship between humanity, the land and nature. It undermines the moral fabric of societies, increases prostitution, unemployment and delinquency. Can we be complacent when this iniquitous system continues to destroy precious lives everywhere in the world but particularly in the third world?

The path of righteousness

To those who wish to Meditate on the profundity of this Love Commandment of which Fr. Mike was the living personification, would do well to emulate his life which was unique in more than one way. For, the cross of Jesus and of Fr. Mike are seen as the sorrowful way leading the human to the path of righteousness. Jesus' cross and that of Fr. Mike signified the crossing point of divine and human hopes! Therefore in the new policy of peace there will be an overcoming of death, tears, grief, crying and pain. In the vision of Exodus, the destructive power of Egyptian politics was broken and all the unjust social and economic relations were righted and the slaves were freed. This new peace is possible because God lives with the people. And this is the way God is vindicating his people, and He dwells and shares the same abode with them. Peace is not mere absence of war. It is love, justice and liberation that creates the fullness of life for the people and the overcoming of the power of death.

Prepared by

Sr. Milburga Fernando

(Based on the notes of Fr. Mike)

LIFE  WITH  EVE

By Sonali Samarasinghe

A missile French style

Apparently Aldous Huxley has been going around in the early 1900s spreading a story that "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad." And I always thought the truth would make you free.

If this hasn't debunked the basis of my whole existence I don't know what has. Unless unbeknownst to us, there lies a thin line between madness and freedom. In that case, contrary to accepted form, lunatics should be allowed to run the asylum.

A few of us were discussing these and other matters over coffee and cake at my place, when Jay interjected loudly, his head nodding from its thick stem like a chrysanthemum in the noon day breeze.

"What are you wagging your head for?" I ask, "Well," he says laughing. "If I tell you what really happened minutes before that nasty green and vermilion patch appeared on your white carpet you would have gone ballistic. Thus, the truth would indeed have made you mad." Ergo, Huxley is a genius.

Kay flutters her eyelids in a suspicious manner and hurriedly suggests that we take no more notice of what Jay has to contribute to this discussion. I let slip _ no not the dogs of war, but the case of the green blot on my escutcheon for the nonce, and Nami changes the subject as usual.

"Anyway why should we worship our own freedom," she muses, deviating from green patches into greater realms. I stand on one leg and wiggle an ear. You know what Gibran says I tell them, pulling out The Prophet from the shelf and turning to the appropriate page. "You can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment... And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed."

We ponder in silence before the mighty man's words. Before Jay suggests that may be some one should send George W. Bush a copy of Gibran.

Not that this anxiety about taking out Saddam and flattening Iraq in the process is not getting tedious and incoherent. Thus the American campaign against Muslim nations that have harboured the agents of Al Qaeda and other allegedly sympathetic groups like the Jemaah Islamiah(JI) is illogical to the extent that every major Western nation has harboured them as well willingly or otherwise.

Which brings me to an email I received from one of the more cynical lecturers at Uni. It gives a proposed war strategy (I'm unaware of the author of the piece so I'm unable to credit him or her) soon to be used by America and her allies in the war against terror. A strategy after president Kumaratunge's own heart if not for its merits, then for the nostalgic memories it will evoke of her student days on the Left Bank of Seine. Here it is.

"America desperate to find new strategies to fight the war on terror has decided to deploy French intellectuals into Afghanistan and other Muslim nations harbouring Al Qaeda operatives. The allies revealed plans to airdrop a platoon of crack French existentialist philosophers into the country to destroy the morale of Taliban zealots by proving the non-existence of God.

"Elements of the feared Jean-Paul Sartre Brigade, or 'Black Berets; will be parachuted into the combat zones to spread doubt, despondency and existential anomie among the enemy. Hardened by numerous intellectual battles fought during their long occupation of the Left Bank, their first action will be to establish a number of pavement cafes at strategic points near the front lines. There they will drink coffee and talk animatedly about the absurd nature of life and man's lonely isolation in the universe. They will be accompanied by a number of heartbreakingly beautiful girls who will further spread dismay by sticking their tongues in the philosophers' ears while looking remote and unattainable to everyone else.

"Their leader, Colonel Marc-Ange Belmondo, spoke yesterday of his confidence in the success of their mission. Sorbonne graduate Belmondo, a very intense and unshaven young man in a black pullover, gesticulated wildly and said, 'The Taliban are caught in a logical fallacy of the most ridiculous. There is no God and I can prove it. Take your tongue out of my ear, Juliette, I am talking.' Belmondo plans to deliver an impassioned thesis on man's nauseating freedom of action with special reference to the work of Foucault and the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

"However, humanitarian agencies have been quick to condemn the operation as inhumane, pointing out that the effects of passive smoking from the Frenchmen's excessive love of cigarettes could wreak a terrible toll on civilians in the area. Speculation was mounting last night that Britain may also contribute to the effort by dropping Professor Stephen Hawking into Afghanistan and other strategic areas to propagate his non-deistic theory of the creation of the universe. Other tactics to demonstrate the non-existence of God will include the dropping of leaflets pointing out the fact that Michael Jackson has a new album out and Jesse Helms has not died yet. This is only one of several psy-ops programmes mounted by the Allies."

And while Al Qaeda remains high on the political agenda for the Americans, half the world would still like to know where their next meal will come from. Here then is a little food for thought from an Indonesian friend who sent me this e-mail.

"The UN conducted a worldwide survey asking just one question. 'Please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?'

"The survey was a failure. In Africa, they did not know what 'food' meant. In Western Europe, they did not know what 'shortage' meant. In Eastern Europe, they did not know what 'opinion' meant. In the Middle East, they did not know what 'solution' meant. In South America, they did not know what 'please' meant. In Asia, they did not know what 'honest' meant. And in the USA, they did not know what 'the rest of the world' meant."