The Living Goddess review – a fascinating study of child deities

Travel writer Isabella Tree spent over a decade researching Nepal’s tradition of Kumari – young girls believed to be vessels for the female divine spirit

The goddess of the title is a girl, sometimes as young as three and with an unblemished body, believed to be an incarnation of or host for Durga or Devi, the female goddess. While the force is with her, the girl is known as a Kumari, lives apart from her family, is worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists and, according to some, holds the wellbeing of Nepal in her hands.

The tradition goes back centuries and provides an unusual and fascinating window through which to look at Kathmandu culture. Isabella Tree first encountered a Kumari in 1983 on her gap year and was struck – as many in the west will be – by the idea of a human being inhabited by a goddess. But it wasn’t until after the massacre of the Nepalese royal family in 2001 that she began work on this book. The result is a fascinating work of obsessive energy that both amazes and frustrates.