If you yearn to return to the days of
Odin,
Hera, and
Astarte (and Hamilcar does), you'll be happy to know that we have a bona fide goddess living among us.
Indeed,
Taleju (the deity) just jumped into a new body last week, a three-year-old girl from the Shakya caste in Nepal. You can read Msnbc's article on it
here.
.
The article implies Hindus and Buddhists alike worship little Miss Divinity, but that's misleading. Actually, it's just a cult that attracts a hodgepodge of whackos of various religious persuasions, mostly in Nepal. Thankfully, the
Tibetian Buddhists, with whom I was involved with briefly in my 20's, have nothing to do with this silliness. Interestingly though, the cult is also encouraged by the Nepalese monarchists and Maoists.
.
The whole thing is rife with goofiness. The 3-year-old girl
(who first had to pass a series of bizarre tests) is taken from her parents to live in a monastery. She's treated like a ...well... goddess until she reaches puberty, at which point
Taleju dumps her like damaged goods and takes possession of another body. She gets sent back to her village with a small stipend
(from the government), and a gold coin, and a piece of cloth from her royal robe
(from the monks). Oh, she also gets a curse - the man who marries her is prophecied to die within six months from coughing up blood. It's not nice to take up with someone spurned by the gods.
.
The Wikipedia article is
here. And you can order a book written by one of these former goddess-girls from Amazon
here. It's titled
"From Goddess to Mortal", and you can purchase this 152-page book for the low, low price of $58.26. If you read it, you can write the first review at Amazon.
(Sigh). Well, it's nice to know religious ignorance and superstition are not something that Western religions have a monopoly on. BTW, the pics here are not of the present 3-year-old Kumari.
Indeed, Taleju (the deity) just jumped into a new body last week, a three-year-old girl from the Shakya caste in Nepal. You can read Msnbc's article on it here.
.
The article implies Hindus and Buddhists alike worship little Miss Divinity, but that's misleading. Actually, it's just a cult that attracts a hodgepodge of whackos of various religious persuasions, mostly in Nepal. Thankfully, the Tibetian Buddhists, with whom I was involved with briefly in my 20's, have nothing to do with this silliness. Interestingly though, the cult is also encouraged by the Nepalese monarchists and Maoists.
.
The whole thing is rife with goofiness. The 3-year-old girl (who first had to pass a series of bizarre tests) is taken from her parents to live in a monastery. She's treated like a ...well... goddess until she reaches puberty, at which point Taleju dumps her like damaged goods and takes possession of another body. She gets sent back to her village with a small stipend (from the government), and a gold coin, and a piece of cloth from her royal robe (from the monks). Oh, she also gets a curse - the man who marries her is prophecied to die within six months from coughing up blood. It's not nice to take up with someone spurned by the gods.
.
The Wikipedia article is here. And you can order a book written by one of these former goddess-girls from Amazon here. It's titled "From Goddess to Mortal", and you can purchase this 152-page book for the low, low price of $58.26. If you read it, you can write the first review at Amazon.
(Sigh). Well, it's nice to know religious ignorance and superstition are not something that Western religions have a monopoly on. BTW, the pics here are not of the present 3-year-old Kumari.
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