Chariot' Wheels

Music.

Starts: 01:00:00:00

Chariot carrying Kumari through the streets

V/O Sub. Minta Shakya: Since my daughter is a god...I know we shouldn't miss her but we lover her and we do miss her...but what can we do she's a God now!

00:10

Kumaris' Mum at home combing kids hair

V/O: six years ago Minta Shakya gave up her 3 year old daughter to a group of priests responsible for maintaining the Nepalese cult of virgin worship.

00:20

Montage of Kumari tearing across town

V/O Sub. Minta: But when she is returned to us she will be my daughter again and I will love her like any mother does.

00:35

Chariot Shot

Minta at Home

V/O Sub: Minta But for now...we remember she is a Goddess and we consul our grief this way.

00:44

Montage of chariot Kumari and her worshippers tearing across town

V/O: Today Mintas daughter, the royal Kumari is 9 years and the most powerful of the 8 living goddesses in this ancient Himalayan Kingdom.

00:55

Nepalese Music

01:08

WS Mountains

V/O: Surrounded by the Tibetan plateau and the Indian subcontinent, the mountainous region of Nepal is an amalgam of different cultures.

01:14

Shot of Mask

01:22

Shot of van

Van passes to reveal Hindu temples Patan

V/O: And just as the Himalayas were created by the collision of two great land masses, so too has the creation of the living Goddess come from the union of two of the regions great religions, Hinduism and Buddhism.

01:28

Shots of masked dancer at festival

Festival music.

V/O: Steeped in traditions as old as the mountains, Nepal has known the Living Goddess for several Millennia.

01:44

Shots of festival musicians

Royal Kumari House surrounded by people

Clashing of Symbols.

PTC: it's perhaps a measure of the breadth of Hinduism that the living Goddess is actually a Buddhist. Chosen from the Shakya sect of Buddhists, the Kumari is worshipped by all of Nepal as a Hindu goddess.

01:58

Masked dancers and crowds

V/O: But it's only in the 18^th century that the practice of venerating someone so young began.

02:10

Interview Dr K. in office

Dr K. : The story we hear is that one of the kings was very promiscuous and had sexual relations with so many girls and once he had sexual relations with a 3 year old and she died I believe (cut) and he said I am so sorry for what I did so I am going to take these young girls and give them to God as an offering and this way wash off all the bad things I have done.

02:15

Shots of Kumari Temple home

V/O: According to legend the Royal Kumari must be installed in this Hindu temple next to the kings palace, where she is looked after by a family of priests who for generations have been her caretakers.

02:44

Jujubhai Sakia working in courtyard

V/O: Jujubhai Sakia the present caretaker is now looking after his 8^th Goddess.

02:58

Jujubhai Sakia in temple surrounds

Jujubhai Sakia: We have been looking after Kumaris for many generations because this is our family tradition. We are not their fathers we are the servants of these girls. Their parents live elsewhere and are not allowed to live here with the Kumari.

03:05

Shots of temple window

V/O: In Nepal the secret life of a deity is guarded religiously by her caretaker.

03:26

No Photograph Sign

And it seemed that only an act of God would get our cameras into the temple.

02:32

Interview with caretaker

ER: Can we take photos of her?

03:37

Sub. Caretaker: No ...Sorry...

03:39

ER: But there are other Kumaris in Nepal...

03:40

Sub. Caretaker: Ah...in Patan you can take photos of the others but not here. This is the main Kumari the royal Kumari the kind of respect in which she is held is greater then the respect the others command.

03:47

Shot or road to Patan

03:58

Looking over the river

V/O: The Patan Kumari lives just across the Bagmati river in the second largest town in the Katmandu valley.

04:02

ER in street exterior Patan Kumari house

V/O: But unlike the Royal Kumari whose respect stretches to the provision of a temple...

04:12

ER walking up dingey stairs

V/O: this goddess like her 7 regional counterparts lives in somewhat less salubrious accommodation.

04:17

Shot of hand  - Chandrasila

Ringing of Bell - Kumari Ceremony.

V/O: since the age of 3...Chandrasila has begun every day with a formal worship ceremony in her Pooja or prayer room.

04:25

ER Kneels in front of Kumari

V'O: Now 7 years old with her grandfather as her caretaker Chandrasila will live in this room greeting worshippers until she reaches puberty.

04:50

ER gets dotted

V/O: some how it is difficult to imagine my own 7 year old in her place.

05:00

Looking at photos of Chandrasila when she became Kumari

ER: She is weeping in this one

Sub. GF: She didn't want to leave her family

ER: Yes...

Sub. GF: This photo was taken when she first came to us.

05:09

Shots of Minnie mouse clock - Chandrasila

V/O: After centuries of tradition the process of turning a 3 year old into a virgin goddess is as established as it is ritualized and clearly not every one can become Kumari.

05:30

Grandfather

Sub. GF: They short list three girls and these were taken to the Kings head priest. My grand daughter then led me and the head priests wife to the head priests bedroom and showed us the symbol of the Goddess. That's when we knew she was the incarnation of the Goddess.

05:42

Shyam Dhungel

V/O: Shyam Dhungel is the government administrator who is responsible for the selection process and the continuance of the Kumari tradition.

06:15

Administrators office

Interview

Sub. SD: All the girls should have good qualities...like beauty. After selecting the group of girls we will look into the birth records which are investigated by an expert in the Shakya cast, astrologers and a Tantric. The girl who is chosen is the taken to the King who makes the final choice.

06:23

Festival and Music

V/O: Once chosen the 3 year old is plunged into a series of highly secretive initiation ceremonies which include being paraded past a collection of 32 freshly severed bleeding buffalo heads.

06:58

Shots of masks buffalo and flames

Sub. SD: What happens the next day is that the new Kumari walks barefoot to the Taleju temple which is located behind Hanamandh.

07:13

Administrator

Sub. SD: And this is where the severed heads of the buffalo had been lined up from the previous day.

07:29

Shots of festival, masks

V/O: Legend has it that if the new Kumari shows any sign of fear it is seen as a bad omen.

07:45

Dr K Psychologist

Dr K: This country is very much a religious country...strong traditional beliefs are here...where people don't ask ‘why am I doing this or that...' so that practice is because my mother did it, my father told me to do it I will continue to do that.

07:58

Shot of temple window

V/O: And continue she does...9 or 10 years of virtual isolation that ends only when she reaches puberty and has her first menstrual cycle

08:17

Dr K

Dr K: If she starts menstruating she is out of the thing and why? It's like as if Menstruating is something that's awful. It's going to happen to every girl.

08:28

Minta walking children to school

V/O: And it's a day, that for the Royal Kumaris mother can't come soon enough.

08:38

Minta enters school grounds. Kids kiss her and run off.

Sub M: My daughter doesn't think about us much these days because she is away from us. And when I see her she just says hello and leaves.

08:48

Royal Kumari Mother

Sub. M: Of course I felt excited when my daughter was chosen to be a living Goddess But when I had to leave her behind...I felt terrible.

08:57

Children playing as mother looks on

V/O: From a mothers point of view there could be nothing worse than losing a child.

09:11

Kids Playing

V/O: But the price the young Kumari pays for being a Goddess --praying and playing in a world void of laughter - is higher still.

09:15

Old Kumari walks in rain

Sub. VO Dil Kumari Deo Maiju: I was not allowed out to play I was a Goddess and I was always worshipping upstairs...But life as a Kumari was easy. Now I struggle for a living.

09:28

Old Kumari upstairs

V/O: 63 years ago when she reached puberty Dil Kumari Deo Maiju was forced to leave the Kumari temple and return to the world she left as a child...not as a Goddess but as an illiterate teenager.

09:41

Dil Kumari Deo Maiju

Sub. Dil Kumari Deo Maiju: When I was Kumari Goddess, life was luxurious and I had nothing to do, no work to worry about. Now I have to work for a living but I don't have the skills because as a Kumari I was kept idle. People were against the provision of education especially to girls.

09:57

Elephant walking along road

V/O: Today as Nepal lumbers into the twenty first century and tradition crumbles under the weight of centuries of exploitation ...the institution of Kumari worship is facing its biggest challenge...not from rival dynasties but from the Kumaris' parents.

10:21

Patan Kumaris Grandfather

Sub. GF: I read in a news story where a Kumari said "after I turn 11 I cease being a Kumari...what then?" One day the same question will arise regarding our Kumaris future livelihood.

10:39

Patan Kumari being tutored

V/O: in order to prevent this, and prepare for her future, Chandrisila's grandfather has scraped the money together to hire a tutor for her.

11:05

Shots of Kumari temple

V/O: In the royal Kumari temple making provisions for the future is not so straightforward. Here the caretaker replaces the grandfather and tradition gets in the way of a good education.

11:17

Administrator

Sub VO SD: Yes:...while the Kumaris in the Kumari temple she cannot go to school.

11:30

ER: This is the 21^st century and a lot of people are educated...

11:37

SD: I think the century in which this tradition began was superior to the 21^st century. There are so many traditional things which are very scientific just like cow dung...in the 21^st century cow dung may be regarded as useless...but scientifically it is very usefull today.

11:44

School yard Uncle gives speech

V/O: Useful or not Bhuwan Man Shakya the royal Kumaris uncle and head master of the local primary school, believes that you need more than cow dung to survive today.

12:11

Bhuwan Man Shakya

Bhuwan Man Shakya: I think that every Nepali citizen should get a good education so why does a Nepali Goddess not get the same...and for that we are lobbying the government "why aren't you providing education to the living Goddess?"

12:24

Administrator

SD: Look...I am committed that the Kumari should get a suitable education.

12:37

ER: Is that happening now?

12:48

SD: No its not happening now

12:50

ER: you are thinking about it?

12:54

SD: Not just thinking about it maybe I will decide within a year.

12:55

Children in school yard

V/O: The years come and go all to fast for a Kumari and before long the child goddess is back with her family...now a young woman and without the skills to earn a living.

13:03

Dr K psychologist

Dr K: These days if a woman does not earn she has very little prestige in her family and this Kumari this little girl who grew up in isolation really has very little skills and knowledge to go out and seek a job or get some work and then bring money home.

13:15

Dil Kumari Deo Maiju:

Sub. Dil Kumari Deo Maiju: Yes my problems were common household work which I had to do because I didn't have the skills to warn money doing other work.

13:35

ER: Did the government give you a pension after you left being a Kumari?

13:46

Sub. Dil Kumari Deo Maiju: No...nothing for many years.

13:50

Festivals - people taking photos

V/O: And according to the parents of the Royal Kumari this is not right. The biggest tourist draw card in Nepal, their daughter, should get her share of the pot.

14:01

Kumari Uncle

Uncle: Many tourists, mostly they like to see the living Goddess first of all.

14:12

ER: Which means she is generating more income.

14:16

Uncle: Yes...for the hotel tourism and trade like this

14:18

Shot of Kumari picture

Uncle

Uncle: we claim that the Living Goddess should get some earning source and a percentage of that income for the future. We don't want it for our family but for her life.

14:23

Festival

V/O: for the Royal Kumaris father it's not only about money...being relegated to the rear of his daughters ceremonial chariot in the biggest show in town is...well...down right degrading.

14:45

Father

Father: I wanted to stay in front and be recognized as the father of the living Goddess...this is where the priest want to be and want me in back...and I am not happy with that.

15:00

Administrator

ER: If you continue like this no one will want to be a Kumari.

15:18

SD: Yes...it has become necessary to sort this out. The time is right to ask this question. Maybe we'll get a solution.

15:21

Mother preparing dinner

V/O: It seems that for at least one family trading a daughter for a Goddess had lost its appeal.

15:46

Mother serves dinner

Sub VO M: In the future I wouldn't give nay more of my daughters as a Kumari because the price is too high.

15:54

Mother

M: Sometimes my grief tears me apart because she is not here and I feel like crying because she's so far from us now and I know she wants to come home with us. (Cry)

16:06

Father

Father: What can we do since we have already given our daughter as Kumari.

16:15

Chariot

V/O: For the moment all he can do is watch the spectacle as his daughters juggernaut rolls on.

16:25

King

V/O: But if the king can't find the money to educate and support his biggest icon in her retirement this may be the Kumaris last ride.

16:33

Old Kumari and Photo

V/O: And just like the fading photos and the dying memories, the Kumari could become just another story they tell the tourist in Nepal.

16:46

Sub VO Dil Kumari Deo Maiju: I think I was about 10 years old here when the terrible earthquake hit Katmadu 65 years ago. The boy in the picture was my playmate. My caretakers son. I was a Goddess and I looked pretty good then. But now the picture has become old and lost its beauty. Music

16:54

END