In the early days of these pages, I opined that my ideal job position would be a U.S. Supreme Court justice. But that’s for adults, of course. I think the best job for a kid might just be goddess. No quotes here, because it’s an AP article, but the gist is that a some priests in Nepal have chosen Matani Shakya, age 3, from among other girls to be the new Kumari. The article doesn’t say what her duties will be, but she gets to live in the temple until puberty, at which point she’s not a goddess any more. But she’ll always have it to tell her grandchildren.
Pointers to this fortnight’s blog carnivals:
- Skeptics’ Circle #97.
- Carnival of the Liberals #75.
- Carnival of Feminists #66.
- Carnival of Education #191.
- Carnival of Education #192.
- Carnival of Mathematics #41, including “Countable and uncountable sets”, parts 1 and 2.
- Carnival of the Godless #102.
3 comments:
I read the article about the three-year-old goddess too, and I was horrified. To be taken away from one's family and raised by creepy old men? At a young age, she has to wear special clothes all the time, sit still frequently, and not get dirty. At an older age, she'll realize she's being used. Finally, she gets dumped as goddess and becomes unmarriageable. Sounds like child abuse.
And, of course, her family surely considers it a great honour, and she'll be raised to think so too.
She won't have any grandchildren to tell it to, more than likely, as men are afraid to marry a former Kumari. And there's no transition period to help her adjust, and no one teaches her any skills, so she's dumped on her family as a burden, and they don't even know her any more.
OTOH, she probably does as well for herself as most Nepalese girls, and she does get a small stipend from the government.
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