Kumari

How have the times changed the living goddess? The previous One likes bubble gum. While the Macchendranath chariot was being pulled through Durbar Marg, it is reported that she blew a bubble while the cheering crowds pressed forward for a blessing. She is still draped in red silk with the Third Eye on her forehead. At 4 years old, Priti Shakya, was subjected to the ancient rites of identifying the Kumari: horoscope, imperfections, spending the night in a room with 108 animal heads: she passed. Along with the 32 other Perfections. And went into isolation at Durbar Square. Until October 2008, when a new goddess, Matani Shakya, was named. Priti is adjusting to a life that - suddenly - is supposed to live a normal girl's life. This cycle has been repeated for about four centuries, holding out against modernity as Nepal slowly began to change.

Kumaris now have been sucked into the politial maelstrom, from Maoist militants to the Prime Minister. Public debate is taking place, on child's rights and a very ancient form of worship. The present nascent democratic government refused to allow King Gyanendra to receive the goddess' annual blessing - thought to be an important living deity of the king. When the king went without permission, the Nepalese government slashed the number of royal bodyguards.

Among the Shakyas, the caste that chooses the goddess from its daughters, it has become increasingly difficult to find families willing to send their girls away. For some people, all this is simply too much. Some politicians now focus on the kumaris for political gain: any criticism at all would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago, when Nepal was emerging from centuries of isolation. It was a nation bound by strong and feudal traditions, a country that handed out visitors' visas very reluctantly, and where few people could imagine a king without power.

While change did eventually come - foreigners began arriving regularly in the sixties, Kathmandu became notorious for its inbound Western vans, budget passengers and cheap drugs - it came slowly. For example, a law was passed five years back, so women can now have equal inheritance rights.

In 2008, the Nepalese Supreme Court has asked the government to guarantee basic child rights to the living goddesses, after a three-year debate on whether the practice of keeping a child secluded infringed on rights guaranteed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The court also ordered the government to ensure social security for the former goddesses.

Today, Nepal is a fragile democracy and change is coming even to the kumari. Television in available in her palace these days, giving access to everything from movies to the local news. She can probably watch Gossip Girl after her puja.

Kumari Ghar, Durbar Square.