Nepali women waiting for the Kumari

Gurkas in ceremonial dress

The Kumari's chariot

The Kumari

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2003-09-09 - Kathmandu (Day 147)

I wake up with the thought of, "Cool! I'm in Kathmandu!" in my head as I hear a knocking on the door. Noam is there saying that they are off. They have found a cheaper hotel with other Israelis. I wish them well and that is that, some more people met on the road left on their own path. It is a bit of a pang to realize how fluidly people merge in and out of our lives on the road and how quickly they are gone.

A lovely big western breakfast on a rooftop restaurant in the sunshine and I am in the perfect mood. I wander around a little and then down to Durbar Square which is going to have he Kumari come out today in a ceremony which only happens a couple of times a year. The Nepalis believe the Kumari is the embodiment of a goddess and thus is kept in a special house where she grows from the age of about 5 years old until she reaches puberty when she will return to her family and another Kumari will be chosen. The concept it self was unusual but there are many related rituals that seem cruel to make a child live with. The Kumari cannot touch the ground so her home's floors are all crushed velvet; she cannot do anything that may injure her because if she breaks a bone or even gets a deep cut she will be turned out of the Kumari house and another chosen. She can not visit her family and her family can only come at certain days to visit her and she is only allowed to leave the Kumari house twice a year in an ornamental procession which makes me think she'd probably rather have stayed home.

It was 12:00pm when I went to Durbar Square but already the seats were filling up and even though things were not supposed to start until after 3:00pm, I decided to stay lest I would not have a seat. The steps of the Maju Duval temple filled up early with Nepali women in row upon row of red finery and soon various branches of the military started assembling in ceremonial dress. The foreign dignitaries came next with the ambassadors from most of Nepal's major partners. They all lined up on the balcony of the Gadi Baithak, part of the old palace. I had not expected that this process will be such a major event and my expectations are rising. There is a great wooden chariot for the Kumari being prepared and a goat is sacrificed in front of it to call on the god's blessings.

One American marred my excitement a bit though. The square is divided into the Maju Duval, which is reserved for Nepali women, a foreigner's box and a press box. The press box required you to show a press card to enter and all three designations had soldiers overseeing them to keep the peace and watch out for Maoist bombs. Most of the seats were full by 3:00pm and four Americans not wanting to stand in the foreigners' box climbed into the press box. When one young soldier asked them for their press badges which they obviously didn't have they played like they didn't understand his English even though his instructions were very clear and keep arguing that there were no seats elsewhere. The young soldier, frustrated by their obstinacy calls his superior. Soon there are three soldiers asking the foreigners to leave but they are refusing. The soldiers are in a tough spot as they don't want to be too forceful as that would draw attention from the event and of course this is happening in a press box so if things happened to get out of hand, it perhaps could turn into yet another negative item about Nepal that would show up in the news. In a tough position, the senior soldier called in a plain-clothed Nepali who was pretty impressive. On his was over to the Americans I saw him greet the Nepali news agency photographer by name, stop to chat for a second with a Japanese journalist - in Japanese - and then go over to the Americans and in perfect California English ask them to leave. Three left but one just would not be moved, and kept saying that there were no seats in the foreigner's section. As this was happening just in front of me, I couldn't keep myself from cutting in -

Me - "You are American aren't you?"
Jerk - "Yes."
Me - "Thought so. Look Dude, you're not press, you got here late and there aren't any seats left, live with it. Don't help us keep the name of ' Ugly American' "

The jerk proceeded to get angry and started yelling at me, which is the second thing he did which just caters to the world's stereotypical American.

The plainclothes Nepali along with two soldiers did end up escorting him over to the foreigners' box, and to my chagrin even cleared a place for him. Its amazing what will be tolerated which your hosts are as gracious as the Nepalis are.

Not long after this, the photographers start moving around and I turn to see the Kumari being carried out of the house. She is carried up into a guilt box on the chariot and immediately engulfed by video cameras inches from her face. With government officials there usually seems to be a cordon to keep the press back a bit but this poor girl was facing 10 video cameras immediately in front of her and flash from all sides.

It took about 20 minutes to get her properly seated and the carriage that was pulled by a number of young men turned to go into the square. Once it was turned it passed in seconds by the dignitaries and Prince of Nepal who were on the balcony of the Gadi Baithak , the chariot then turned, went to the back of the square and disappeared back into the Kumari house. I could not believe it, the whole process had taken 5 minutes from the time the carriage started moving!

It took another hour for all the dignitaries to have their cars come back around to pick them up and then the military honor guards filed out. Must say this was an awful lot of work to catch that short glimpse of the Kumari but then again, how much time can one expect a goddess to give you?

The last thing I noticed was when all the dignitaries were arriving almost all of them got out of their cars and went immediately to the receiving line to greet the senior officials that were lined up, all except one. I was seated next to three German reporters when the American ambassador xxx arrived and got out, he straightened his coat then turned and gave a perfectly rehearsed theatrical wave to the press box...I bowed my head in embarrassment but saw the Germans shaking their heads and one of them said, "Americans......."

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