LONDON, UK, March 03, 2008: A young girl worshipped in Nepal as a living goddess has retired early from this ritual status.
Eleven-year-old Sajani Shakya is one of the three most revered living goddesses or Kumaris. She was in the news last when she was almost sacked from her position for travelling to the United States.
Sajani has been the Kumari of Bhaktapur city since she was two, but it has now emerged that she has left the post early, at the age of 11. Her father told the BBC however that this slightly early retirement had nothing to do her U.S travel controversy.
She has left the post because her family wanted her to undergo another religious ritual, a wedding, that most girls of her ethnic group experience in early childhood.
From Monday morning, an elaborate search will begin among Bhaktapur’s ancient streets and squares to find a new living goddess.