some people would say that it’s it’s
difficult life to be a Kumari they’re
young girls who are taken out of school
and they’re worshipped there’s no way to
really understand what that feels like
to be worshipped by thousands of people
there’s no way I was in the National
Geographic Office and I went in to say
hello to Sarah lien who’s the director
of photography and she said just the
person I wanted to see and told me that
she had a story and that I might want to
consider on Kumari’s which are living
goddesses in Nepal there’s two goddesses
and one is Buddhist and one is Hindu and
and they come together and they inhabit
the young girl and she becomes a living
goddess they’re instructed to sit very
still and just let you know just let
themselves be worshiped in that way the
idea is that the goddess inhabits them
in and gives them that self control and
it’s the goddess who’s there at that
point
I photographed a young girl named Asuka
she was two years old so she was a
youngest Kumari I met she was basically
like a regular two-year-old except
people would come and worship her and
she would give blessings and go about
her day like a regular child except for
these auspicious times some are selected
it just shortly after birth some are
selected
you know like única who we photographed
her in her selection when she’s 7 you
know it was really interesting because I
met her as a girl before she was a
Kumari and so then I had to worship her
as well I couldn’t go in to her room or
anywhere without bowing to her and in
giving her a gift and Stefon so it was
interesting just personally to
experience that and watch it my own
relationship with her change the
community wants this tradition to stay
but many of them wanted it to happen but
just not with their kid because of the
risks involved and the financial burden
and the hard work it is to kind of
always have to be doing this there’s
value in it for sure but what does that
look like for her long-term I think that
girls are value around the world is very
much seen in their in their bodies from
this story I would like people to come
away with understanding the role these
living artists is play in their in their
society and in their homes but also see
them as the little girls that they are
difficult life to be a Kumari they’re
young girls who are taken out of school
and they’re worshipped there’s no way to
really understand what that feels like
to be worshipped by thousands of people
there’s no way I was in the National
Geographic Office and I went in to say
hello to Sarah lien who’s the director
of photography and she said just the
person I wanted to see and told me that
she had a story and that I might want to
consider on Kumari’s which are living
goddesses in Nepal there’s two goddesses
and one is Buddhist and one is Hindu and
and they come together and they inhabit
the young girl and she becomes a living
goddess they’re instructed to sit very
still and just let you know just let
themselves be worshiped in that way the
idea is that the goddess inhabits them
in and gives them that self control and
it’s the goddess who’s there at that
point
I photographed a young girl named Asuka
she was two years old so she was a
youngest Kumari I met she was basically
like a regular two-year-old except
people would come and worship her and
she would give blessings and go about
her day like a regular child except for
these auspicious times some are selected
it just shortly after birth some are
selected
you know like única who we photographed
her in her selection when she’s 7 you
know it was really interesting because I
met her as a girl before she was a
Kumari and so then I had to worship her
as well I couldn’t go in to her room or
anywhere without bowing to her and in
giving her a gift and Stefon so it was
interesting just personally to
experience that and watch it my own
relationship with her change the
community wants this tradition to stay
but many of them wanted it to happen but
just not with their kid because of the
risks involved and the financial burden
and the hard work it is to kind of
always have to be doing this there’s
value in it for sure but what does that
look like for her long-term I think that
girls are value around the world is very
much seen in their in their bodies from
this story I would like people to come
away with understanding the role these
living artists is play in their in their
society and in their homes but also see
them as the little girls that they are
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