At the centre of an ecstatic throng a nine year-old girl is paraded through the streets. Until she reaches puberty this little girl will bless the devoted. It's hard for her family but they have faith in the priests who identified her as an incarnation of the Kumari goddess when she was just three. "Since my daughter is a God I know we shouldn't miss her but we do. She doesn't think about us much... when I see her she just says hello and leaves." The roots of the tradition are less than holy, the result of 18th century Kings devoting young girls to God in atonement for their abuse of children. The age limit is troubling too, after all what does a Goddess do when she's no longer revered? Meeting a teenage Kumari we find her cleaning - she has no other employable skills.

Produced by ABC Australia