In Nepal, a Kumari is a prepubescent girl selected from the Shakya clan of the Nepali Newari Buddhist community.

The Kumari tradition is only followed in a few cities in Nepal, which are Kathmandu, Lalitpur (also called Patan), Bhaktapur, Sankhu, and Bungamati.

As the supreme goddess is thought to have manifested this entire cosmos out of her womb, she exists equally in animate as well as inanimate objects.

In the Shakta text Devi Mahatmyam, or Chandi, the goddess is said to have declared that she resides in all female living beings in this universe.

Whilst the veneration of a living Kumari in Nepal is relatively recent, dating only from the 17th century, the tradition of Kumari-Puja, or virgin worship, has been around for much longer.

There is written evidence describing the selection, ornamentation, and worship of the Kumari dating from the 13th century CE.

According to the most popular legend, a king and his friend, the goddess Taleju, approached his chambers late one night as he played tripasa, a dice game.

She told the king that if he wanted to see her again or have her protect his country, he would have to search for her among the Newari (Shakya) community of Ratnawali, as she would be incarnated as a little girl among them.

Hoping to make amends with his patroness, King Jayaprakash Malla left the palace in search of the young girl who was possessed by Taleju.

[6] Even today, a mother's dream of a red serpent is believed to be a portent of the elevation of her daughter to the position of Royal Kumari.

A third variation of the legend says that during the reign of King Jayaprakash Malla, a young girl was banished from the city because it was feared that she was possessed by the goddess Durga.

Girls who pass these basic eligibility requirements are examined for the battis lakshanas, or thirty-two perfections of a goddess.

Some of these are poetically listed as such: In addition to this, her hair and eyes should be very black, and she should have dainty hands and feet, small and well-recessed sexual organs, and a set of twenty teeth.

Once the priests have chosen a candidate, she must undergo yet more rigorous tests to ensure that she indeed possesses the qualities necessary to be the living vessel of Durga.

The young candidate is taken into the Taleju temple and released into the courtyard, where the severed heads of the animals are illuminated by candlelight and masked men are dancing about.

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

The ex-Royal Kumari Rashmila Shakya states in her autobiography,[7] From Goddess to Mortal, that this has nothing to do with the selection process, but rather is a ritual the Royal Kumari goes through each year, that there are no men dancing around in masks trying to scare her, and that at most, there are only a dozen or so decapitated animal heads in the scary room test.

She is taken by the priests to undergo a number of secret Tantric rituals to cleanse her body and spirit of her past experiences.

Once the chosen girl completes the Tantric purification rites and crosses from the temple on a white cloth to the Kumari Ghar to assume her throne, her life takes on an entirely new character.

She will always be dressed in red and gold, wear her hair in a topknot, and have the agni chakshu, or "fire eye", painted on her forehead as a symbol of her special powers of perception.

She has shown the correct qualities during the selection process, and her continued serenity is of paramount importance; an ill-tempered goddess is believed to portend bad tidings for those petitioning her.

Many of those visiting her are people suffering from blood or menstrual disorders since the Kumari is believed to have special power over such illnesses.

On 3 July 2008, Sajani Shakya was removed from her position as Kumari of Bhaktapur after visiting the United States to attend the release of the movie Living Goddess at Silverdocs, the American Film Institute/Discovery Channel documentary festival in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland.

[8] A couple of weeks later, temple authorities at Sajani Shakya's hometown recanted their previous statement and said that she would not be stripped of her title because she was willing to undergo a "cleansing" ceremony to remove any sins she might have committed while traveling.