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Episode details

World Service,3 mins

Transitioning from living goddess to mortal

Heart and Soul

Available for over a year

“I felt like the streets were shaking. I burst into tears when I had to go outside” Former kumari (a living goddess) Chanira Bajracharya, now 22, reigned as the Patan kumari from 2001 to 2010. She recounts her first steps taken outside her house after she transitioned from being a living goddess to a mortal. Chanira was not alone in her experience. Her aunt was Patan’s living goddess in 1953. However, her aunt never bled. She was dismissed at the age of 31, but with a small devout following. Today, she continues to live as a kumari.

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