Nepal's Living Goddess ceremony passes off without incident

Sep 11, 2011, 13:09 GMT

Kathmandu- Nepal's annual chariot ride festival of the Living Goddess, marred by controversy because of its connections to the country's monarchic past, passed off without incidents Sunday.

The Living Goddess, or Kumari, is considered the protector of Nepali monarchs. Since the abolition of the monarchy, in 2006, the annual event has often been disrupted by royalists' protests.

The country's president, prime minister and other dignitaries all attended the chariot ride ceremony, while thousands of spectators thronged the Hanuman Dhoka Palace area, the old seat of the Hindu monarchy in Nepal.

However, instead of the usual protest, this year the crowd cheered as the convoy of the newly-elected premier, Baburam Bhattarai, rode past aboard a Nepal-made car. Bhattarai comes from the Maoist party that waged a decade-long insurgency in Nepal that ended with a 2006 peace deal.

The Indra Jatra festival has also attracted controversy because of its history of selecting minors as the incarnation of the Kumari.

Human rights groups say it breaches children's rights as the appointees spend much of their childhood confined to a palace and in the past also were not educated.