The festival marks the end of the monsoon season and beginning of autumn. More than hundred girls under the age of nine gathered for the tradition of worshiping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in Newar community. It is a community affair held primarily to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. Photo: A young Nepalese girl dressed as a Kumari or living Goddess, smiles for camera as she waits for Kumari puja at Hanuman Dhoka, Basantapur Durbar Square in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 17, 2013. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Russian soldiers from 34th motorized infantry mountain brigade, 58th Army, prepare to evacuate a fellow soldier acting as an injured person during a drill at the Darial range outside Russia's city of Vladikavkaz, July 28, 2010. (Photo by Kazbek Basayev/Reuters)

A male red deer with antlers covered in bracken, walks through undergrowth in Richmond Park in south west London, October 3, 2014. Over 600 red and fallow deer roam in the largest of London's Royal Parks, and have their numbers managed in an annual cull each November and February. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

A man prepares to tie a black ribbon next to a makeshift memorial during a prayer ceremony for the victims of the 2004 tsunami on the 16th anniversary of the disaster, at Marina Beach in Chennai, India, December 26, 2020. (Photo by P. Ravikumar/Reuters)

People spend the summer at Qingdao seaside in Shandong, China on July 3, 2019. The maximum temperature of Qingdao beach was 26 degrees Celsius on that day, and all the 9 sea bathing places were open, attracting a large number of visitors to the seaside to enjoy the cool world. (Photo by Huang Jiexian/ZUMA Press)

In this January 23, 2021, file photo, a police officer detains a young woman during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Pushkin square in Moscow, Russia. Allies of Navalny are calling for new protests next weekend to demand his release, following a wave of demonstrations across the country that brought out tens of thousands in a defiant challenge to President Vladimir Putin. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo/File)

A Rohingya refugee bathes at a temporary shelter after arriving by boat in Laweueng, Aceh province on December 27, 2022. Rohingya refugees received emergency medical treatment after a boat carrying nearly 200 people came ashore in Indonesia on December 27, authorities said, in the fourth such landing in the country in recent months. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

An Aardvark is weighed by keeper Harry Maskell during a photo-call at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo on August 23, 2022 in Dunstable, England. As part of their regular check-ups, 10,000 animals are having their vital statistics recorded as a way of keeping track of their health and well-being at the UK's largest Zoo. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)