The Kumari Devi - The living goddess of Nepal is worshiped b y Hindu and Nepali Buddhists. Kumari factually means virgin in Nepali. It is believed to be the name of Durga as a child. The girl is selected from Shakya tribe of Newari community of Nepal. There are various legends on how the current tradition of the Kumari began.

The first legend says that the King Jayaprakash Malla was having sex with a young girl who had not reached her puberty and during the process the girl dies hence to redeem himself he established the ritual of Kumari and started worshiping her.

The second goes in this manner: King Jayaprakash Malla, the last Nepalese king of the Malla dynasty used to play dice game with the Goddess Taleju Bhawani and during the game Goddess Taleju used to provide advice to the king and showed him the right path to rule the kingdom. She used to drive away evil spirits, negative energy, hunger, poverty. The King had promised that he would not reveal this to anyone. One night King without any notification went to visit Goddess Taleju Bhawani and his wife followed her out of curiosity and the secret was revealed. Goddess Taleju became annoyed and warned the king if he would want to protect his country and continue receiving the blessing from Goddess Taleju he would have to search a Shakya girl form Newar community.