| dautari |
Posted
on 03-Sep-03 10:37 AM
Nepal's child goddess plays hide and seek over fee
Wed Sep 3, 6:15 AM ET
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal's living child goddess is refusing to greet foreigners at her historic temple because of a row with city officials over how to split the tourist dollar.
Tourist donations for the Kumari goddess have dried up since Kathmandu levied a $2.50 (1.73 pounds) fee on every foreigner entering the city's ancient Durbar Square, which is crammed with temples and palaces.
So Kumari's caretakers are not letting foreigners see her, even from a distance, until the city shares the money, according to the popular magazine Himal.
"The Kumari does not appear before the tourists these days," a caretaker from the three-storied Kumari House told Reuters. She would not comment further and declined to give her name.
Foreigners have always been banned from meeting the Kumari, a young girl chosen from a high class Buddhist family who is also worshipped by Hindus and who reigns until puberty.
But they are allowed into the tiny courtyard of her 15th century temple, where she frequently appears at her ornately carved balcony window, a mythical third eye painted on her forehead, to wave at the visitors below.
Devotees are furious at the row.
"It is not proper to commercialise the tradition of the Kumari," said Tej Ratna Tamrakar, a devout Buddhist.
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