Nepal’s ‘living goddess’ adjusts to life in the IT sector

KATHMANDU, September 3, 2009 (AFP) - As a child, she was worshipped as a "living goddess" in Nepal after she proved her bravery in an ancient ritual by not crying at the sight of a sacrificed buffalo.







But now Rashmila Shakya, 29, meets friends in cafes, listens to Bollywood music -- and is building a promising career as a computer software developer.

Last year, Shakya became the first former "Kumari" goddess to graduate from college in Nepal, where the centuries-old practice of worshipping a young female as a deity survives.

The girls -- chosen from a single ethnic group native to the Kathmandu Valley -- spend their childhood living in isolation in a small palace, emerging only for feast days when they are paraded through the capital to be worshipped.

The selection criteria are strict.

Priests say that to become a Kumari, a girl must have an unblemished body, a chest like a lion and thighs like a deer.

Even if they fulfil all the physical requirements, aspiring Kumaris must prove they can sit in a room with a buffalo carcass without crying as a test of their bravery.

Shakya, who was selected aged just four and spent eight years living in the Kumari's palace in central Kathmand