Kathmandu, June 5:

A meeting was held at the Guthi Sansthan Central Office (GSCO) to select a Kumari for Bhaktapur.

The meeting was held after Guthi Sansthan, Bhaktapur, recommended that six-year-old Shreeya Bajracharya of Nasamana-13 be made the Kumari of Bhaktapur. The post of Kumari, who is taken as the Living Goddess, has remained vacant in Bhaktapur after Sajani Shakya retired on January 19.

The GCSO is reportedly working out a new framework to select Kumari in the Kathmandu Valley.

Earlier, the royal priest had the authority to approve the recommendation made by district offices of Guthi Sansthan on the selection of Kumari.

Shemanta Raj Chapagain, chief of the GSCO, said they were holding consultations with experts on the issue. We have informed the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management to sort this out, he said.

Narendra Prasad Joshi, chief of the Taleju temple in Bhaktapur, and Nhuchhe Ratna Shakya, a helper, picked Shreeya from among girls aged between two-and-a-half and seven years through a religious process.

Royal priests were supposed to hammer out the selection of the Goddess by checking whether the would-be Kumari’s horoscope is harmonious with that of the king. According to the process, the Kumari must be endowed with 32 qualities.

Jaya Prasad Regmi, chief of the Guthi Sansthan Bhaktapur, said they had selected a Future Star first-grader in Bhaktapur as the girl expressed her willingness to be the Kumari of Bhaktapur and her parents also agreed.