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The
Cult of Kumari
Virgin Worship
in Nepal
Author: Michael Allen
ISBN:
Size: 21X14
Edition: PB
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Rs. 535.00
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About the book
Kathmandu, Newar Buddhist girls as young as two years old are selected to
become living incarnations of the Hindu goddess Taleju. Called 'Kumaris',
the children are worshiped daily by both priests and laity and until some
sign of imperfection appears, most commonly with the onset of menstruation,
they are required to live in accordance with a rigorous code of purity maintenance.
In this book Dr. Alien provides a detailed ethnographic account of all of
the principal manifestations of this remarkable form of worship. The book
is a substantially revised and enlarged edition of a monograph first published
in 1975 by the Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University,
Kathmandu, Nepal. The then Dean of the Institute, Dr. Prayag Raj Sharma,
described the book as "the most comprehensive study yet undertaken on the
cult of the Kumari. Dr. Alien has ... succeeded not only in compiling much
data on the subject for the first time, but has also tried to show the deep
significance of the cult for the socio-religious life of the people of the
Kathmandu Valley." The book has been out of print for many years and Dr.
Alien has in this new edition included much additional contemporary material,
including 46 beautiful plates. The Cult of Kumari provides material of great
interest to scholars of South Asian religion and society, to students of
gender and women's studies and to all those who have visited Nepal and wondered
greatly at the strange lives of these young girls worshiped as living goddesses.
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