Deity Dispatch
| Courtesy Silverdocs |
Sajani Shakya
In part because she exhibited 32 attributes of perfection, Sajani was selected at a young age to be a Hindu-Buddhist goddess, and custom forbids her from leaving Nepal.
But when British filmmaker Ishbel Whitaker’s film, “Living Goddess,” was selected for screening last month at the annual Silverdocs festival in Silver Spring, Whitaker and the producers brought the girl along.
During her stay, Sajani also attended a festival put on by the America-Nepal Society.
“This is impure in our tradition,” a local religious leader told Reuters at the time. “We will search for a new … living goddess.”
But as Whitaker told Yeas & Nays, “We weren’t aware that this was a problem at all.” As soon as she heard, Whitaker traveled back to Katmandu and had a meeting with the girl’s family and the priest of the royal palace, while Sajani waited for the decision in India.
Whitaker said the priest told her that “he understood that that tradition had to modernize,” and religious leaders agreed last week to reinstate her as long as she underwent a “cleansing ceremony.” (Perhaps everyone who leaves D.C. should be cleansed?)
Upon her return, her family “paraded her around the street as a goddess to show her that she was still a goddess,” said Whitaker, who added that she’s “obviously thrilled.”
