Patan Kumari Gives Me a Blessing

Patan Kumari Gives Me a Blessing

10 April 2019, Wednesday
By Anita Bhattarai

Yesterday I went to Ratnakar Mahabihar with my friends. This is where the current Living Goddess of Patan the Kumari lives. Pallav Sir told us that we would make music at the Vihar, this is where Buddhists study and worship. We would do several things: we would play and have fun, we would take photographs (at least 36, he said, so we could do a exhibition of the place online), some of us would make artwork, and we would make music.

I worked to take good photos of the main temple and interesting details of the sculptures. Shila too took lots of photos. While we were busy taking photos, Vidheha, Utkrishta, Krit, Sugata and Swosti made artwork. And the little kids played games.

Pallav Sir told us what kind of photos we need. We needed photos with good angles that were not blurry. But they had to be creative, he said. As we were taking the pictures Pallav Sir called everybody and said “Now we will meet the living goddess Kumari.” Sabina Miss and Pallav Sir had been talking to the Goddess Kumari’s mother. We were so really excited as we went inside the Living Goddess Kumari’s house.

We took our shoes off outside. We carried our musical instruments. It was a very old style Nepali house. It was like a regular house. As we entered the low door, there was a sofa and a coffee table with clothes and other household items piled on them. I thought my room was a mess, this was messier J. Through another door, there was a room where water was flowing and clothes were being washed and there were water tanks to store water. There were posters, articles about the Kumari that had been published in various papers and magazines.

We went upstairs, the stairs were made of wood, very tall and not wide. They were a very old Nepali style of stairs, a bit scary to go up on. I saw a baby stroller when we came out into a low roofed, low lighted room. There were soft dolls there. We met the Kumari’s mom and Kumari’s baby sister. Her mom gave us water to wash our hands. Then we went into the room where Kumari was sitting on her silver throne. She was so small, she was just 6 years old. She was light bodied and very beautiful. She had been placed as Goddess Kumari of Patan when she was just five. Her name was Nihira Bajracharya.

She was very confident. When we went to get tika on our forehead by the Living Goddess, she placed red abir perfectly on our foreheads. The room had lots of items of worship like tika holders, kalash, diya, incense placement items, bells. The room’s ceiling was covered by a big red cloth. It was also pretty dark. The floor was made of earth, painted red as Nepal traditional floors are. There were sukul straw mats on the floor for us to sit on.

We wanted to talk to her. We wanted to make music for her. But she felt that she wanted to go to her bedroom and play, I think. Maybe she did not feel much like being with a group of strangers. Her mother and her little sister were very nice. Her mother’s name was Mohina Bajracharya and her father was named Niraj. We asked questions to her mother and she gave us time and nice answers. We were allowed to take as many photos as we wanted. I was so thankful.

Then we came down. We played our flutes, madal, violin and tambourine. Many people came and took videos of us. The Kumari also watched us from her windows with her mother. We had so much fun. I want to go there again and meet Kumari again and again. Pallav Sir has said that we can!