Isn't this just a little bit cruel to girls?

[Kylie the Cumbie]

KATMANDU, Nepal - Hindu and Buddhist priests chanted sacred hymns and cascaded flowers and grains of rice over a 3-year-old girl who was appointed a living goddess in Nepal on Tuesday.



Wrapped in red silk and adorned with red flowers in her hair, Matani Shakya received approval from the priests and President Ram Baran Yadav in a centuries-old tradition with deep ties to Nepal's monarchy, which was abolished in May.

The new "kumari" or living goddess, was carried from her parents' home to an ancient palatial temple in the heart of the Nepali capital, Katmandu, where she will live until she reaches puberty and loses her divine status.

She will be worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists as an incarnation of the powerful Hindu deity Taleju.

A panel of judges conducted a series of ancient ceremonies to select the goddess from several 2- to 4-year-old girls who are all members of the impoverished Shakya goldsmith caste.

The judges read the candidates' horoscopes and check each one for physical imperfections. The living goddess must have perfect hair, eyes, teeth and skin with no scars, and should not be afraid of the dark.

As a final test, the living goddess must spend a night alone in a room among the heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffaloes without showing fear.

Having passed all the tests, the child will stay in almost complete isolation at the temple, and will be allowed to return to her family only at the onset of menstruation when a new goddess will be named to replace her. gonk scream gonk

"I feel a bit sad, but since my child has become a living goddess I feel proud," said her father Pratap Man Shakya.

During her time as a goddess, she will always wear red, pin up her hair in topknots, and have a "third eye" painted on her forehead.

Devotees touch the girls' feet with their foreheads, the highest sign of respect among Hindus in Nepal. During religious festivals the goddesses are wheeled around on a chariot pulled by devotees.

Critics say the tradition violates both international and Nepalese laws on child rights. The girls often struggle to readjust to normal lives after they return home.

Nepalese folklore holds that men who marry a former kumari will die young, and so many girls remain unmarried and face a life of hardship.


gonk  

[Leowna]

Toast the fine folks casting silver crumbs to us from the dock.
Jinxed things ringing as they leak through tiny cracks in the boardwalk.
Scarecrow, now it's time to hatch sprouting suns and ageless daughters.
Don't you know? Don't you know that those watermelon smiles just can't ripen underwater?
Just can't ripen underwater.

Not everyone shares your view of cruel.

Though being isolated for at least six years doesn't sound too fun.  

[tattoo fish]

tattoo fish

That's just their culture. It doesn't sound nice, but that's probably been going on for thousands of years. It may seem taboo or mean to other people, but that is just how they do it, and it would be very mean to try and change it.

 

[PrimeOdd]

I don't know. I don't think I'd call it "cruel." I mean, she's respected as a Goddess. That's quite an honor! I just feel bad that she has to stay in the temple for so long. It'd take forever to adjust to a normal life after growing up there...because people form who they will become during their childhood. If she's treated like a Goddess her whole childhood, and then all the sudden has to learn how to go outside, buy her own food, be a mother, take care of her own house, etc...that'd be really hard!

I read this article once in Seventeen magazine where in this one culture, girls have to get a part of their private part cut off when they are young girls. I think that's cruel. confused sad

 

[Kylie the Cumbie]

PrimeOdd

I don't know. I don't think I'd call it "cruel." I mean, she's respected as a Goddess. That's quite an honor! I just feel bad that she has to stay in the temple for so long. It'd take forever to adjust to a normal life after growing up there...because people form who they will become during their childhood. If she's treated like a Goddess her whole childhood, and then all the sudden has to learn how to go outside, buy her own food, be a mother, take care of her own house, etc...that'd be really hard!

I read this article once in Seventeen magazine where in this one culture, girls have to get a part of their private part cut off when they are young girls. I think that's cruel. confused sad

gonk O.O omg, i guess "cruel" really WAS the wrong word to use here

 

[tattoo fish]

tattoo fish

primeodd

l I read this article once in Seventeen magazine where in this one culture, girls have to get a part of their private part cut off when they are young girls. I think that's cruel. confused sad

I personally actually don't think that any culture's practices should be called cruel, y'know? Like, in a lot of cultures, even in today's time, woman's rights are not normal. It doesn't mean that it's cruel. Before change, the lack of women's rights wasn't seen to be cruel or odd. I don't really think any human has a right to judge if something should or should not happen.

I'm not trying to discount your opinion- I don't mean for it to come off as that, so please don't think I am.  

[Polyphonic Twilight]

I read a book written by Waris Dirie about that (the genital cutting thing.) She's from Somalia and had it happen to her, and she describes what it means in their culture and all that... to them it's something sacred, young girls want to get it done... but after, they're in so much pain, and it affects them their whole life. A lot of them don't survive. It was really interesting to read about it all, but from her perspective, because she really knows what she's talking about.


Now she's a UN ambassador and is trying to make it illegal.  

[Kylie the Cumbie]

Polyphonic Twilight

I read a book written by Waris Dirie about that (the genital cutting thing.) She's from Somalia and had it happen to her, and she describes what it means in their culture and all that... to them it's something sacred, young girls want to get it done... but after, they're in so much pain, and it affects them their whole life. A lot of them don't survive. It was really interesting to read about it all, but from her perspective, because she really knows what she's talking about.


Now she's a UN ambassador and is trying to make it illegal.

If some girls don't survive, then it should be illegal. I know it's a part of thier culture and everything... but still... confused  

[tattoo fish]

Polyphonic Twilight

I read a book written by Waris Dirie about that (the genital cutting thing.) She's from Somalia and had it happen to her, and she describes what it means in their culture and all that... to them it's something sacred, young girls want to get it done... but after, they're in so much pain, and it affects them their whole life. A lot of them don't survive. It was really interesting to read about it all, but from her perspective, because she really knows what she's talking about.


Now she's a UN ambassador and is trying to make it illegal.

tattoo fish


Don't survive, like are messed up mentally from it, or dying?

 

[Polyphonic Twilight]

They bleed to death, all by themselves, in the middle of the desert.  

[tattoo fish]

tattoo fish

Wow. eek That's so sad!

 

[Kylie the Cumbie]

Polyphonic Twilight

They bleed to death, all by themselves, in the middle of the desert.

Wow. confused What a.... painful... way to... die....  

[PrimeOdd]

tattoo fish

tattoo fish

primeodd

l I read this article once in Seventeen magazine where in this one culture, girls have to get a part of their private part cut off when they are young girls. I think that's cruel. confused sad

I personally actually don't think that any culture's practices should be called cruel, y'know? Like, in a lot of cultures, even in today's time, woman's rights are not normal. It doesn't mean that it's cruel. Before change, the lack of women's rights wasn't seen to be cruel or odd. I don't really think any human has a right to judge if something should or should not happen.

I'm not trying to discount your opinion- I don't mean for it to come off as that, so please don't think I am.

I just don't think anyone should get their nerves and sexual satisfaction taken away from them. And like what Poly said, it's like, hardcore painful. I just don't think that getting something taken away from you like that could be "un-cruel". I mean, if someones culture involved going around and killing everyone or torturing everyone around them, I don't think thats uncruel just because it's a part of their culture.

@Poly: The person who wrote the thing I read was trying to make it illegal, too. 3nodding