Balkumari Temple

Balkumari Temple

by Shila Shrestha

 Built in 1622, this temple’s main god is the child Kumari along with the warrior god Ganesh who head is that of an elephant and the angry god Bhairab. It was wonderful to be there at the Balkumari temple because when Vidheha cannot, I help teach the living goddess Kumari of Patan on Friday afternoon.

Today we were visiting the temple with the little ones: three to eight year old Shourit, Adhijay, Siddhant, Khayanna, Anusha, and Nirosha. The temple is away from the main city. The temple is built in the pagoda style and has three tiers. It is very interesting that the main priests of the temple are from the Pode cleaning community.

 Sabita didi and I led the group with Bhagwati ma’am also there. Just as we got there, we saw people were making fresh donuts. All of us looked at the donuts being made and we all felt hungry! So we bought donuts and Balkumari temple is a great place to sit down and enjoy ourselves. We sat down, relaxed and enjoyed our donuts.

It had been rainy and cold and cloudy for a few days but not today! The sun was shining beautifully on the temple, the courtyard and the statues as well as on us. Sabita didi bought us some bananas. We were all hungry and we ate bananas.

Now that we were well fed, it was time to enjoy and learn at the temple. We visited the main temple. We put tika on our foreheads. We rang the bells. There was an old stone and water was coming out from that stone! There were beautiful stone lions and other statues. There were many many pigeons. The children loved running after them and making them fly. They pigeons also seemed to enjoy playing with the children.

We also took the photos. My main job today, besides being on the trip, helping out with the children was to take wonderful photos!

Zoya and her mum also had a lot of fun. After running and playing and laughing, it was time to go to Spiny Babbler. We entered the van and as soon as we sat on the van we fell asleep. We had already reached the school when we opened our eyes. When we go outdoors we always wash our hands and faces. Today was a fun day for us.