In certain regions of Nepal, very young girls are chosen to act as "Goddesses" for a number of years.

"There are currently 12 sitting Kumaris, a word that means "virgin" in Nepali. But it is the Kumari of Basantapur who is the most important of all the worshiped virgins. She is worshiped by the king of Nepal and is believed to bestow strength on his monarchy.

A committee of Buddhist priests selects each Kumari through a process that begins once a young candidate has lost her first baby tooth. The Kumari's time in the spotlight is short: She must abdicate immediately after her first menstruation. At that point, the Kumari is expected to transition back to a normal childhood. .

The debate and its implications have hardly impressed Rashmila Shakya, who was a principal Kumari from 1984 to 1992. Being worshiped as a living goddess, Ms. Shakya says, was a privilege.

"It was fun. No one was mad at me. I didn't have to work either. I spent my days playing with dolls," Shakya says in her freshly cemented four-story house in central Kathmandu.

But when asked about the court case, her answer is just as simple: "That's politics. I don't want to get into that." Soft-spoken and shy, Shakya says she feels fortunate to have experienced both the lives of a goddess and a mortal. Her only regret is that she was not able to receive a formal education. "I used to get books used in the school curriculum. But there was no one pushing me to study, and I didn't sit for exams either," she says.

During her Kumari years, Shakya was allowed to meet with her biological family several times a year. She liked living with her caretaker family despite having to always wear makeup and the stiff, formal gown of the goddess.

After returning home in 1992 at the age of 12, she found the transition difficult. But a meeting with another former Kumari - a decade after returning to society - deepened her resolve to lead a normal, educated life. "I saw her sitting in her room, quietly, all made-up the way we used to be at the Kumari House. She still believed she was a goddess," she says. "I told myself this is not the way I am going to spend the rest of my life.""

(Shakya recently completeld a B. S. degree).


A