I just found out (through a Yahoo news article) that in Nepal, they have this tradition of worshipping a pre-pubescent girl, the Kumari Devi - or Virgin Goddess , as a manifestion of the goddess Taleju Bhawani or of Durga. Girls go through all this testing, and then one is chosen as flesh and blood incarnation of the goddess, and reigns until her first menstruation. Apparently both Hindus and Buddhists worship her: “According to a popular belief, Kumari possesses unlimited spiritual powers and protects people from demons and evil spirits.”

This site so far has the best information about it, and says “There are other Kumari’s besides the royal one. There is a Kumari in every town and village in the Kathmandu Valley. However, the Royal Kumari is the most important one. If the rural people can not make it to worship her at one of her festivals then they worship their youngest daughters as the Kumari.”

Man, I love how Hinduism is all about gods and goddesses and avatars and incarnations and manifestations and aspects, and shit like that. Like you don’t just get this one and only incarnation of god, but you get like a bazillion of them in all these different forms, and there’s something for everybody from the abstract, to the personal, the terrifying to beautiful. Just awesome.