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)

Young girls pose for a photo during the Kumari Puja Ritual on the 9th day of the Durga puja festival at a Pandal (Temporary place for worship) in Kolkata on October 4, 2022. Kumari Puja is an Indian Hindu Tradition mainly celebrated during the Durga Puja according to the Hindu Calendar. The philosophical basis of Kumari Puja is to establish the value of women. Devotees believe it will overcome all barriers, dangers for the young girls in the coming future and also, they will be empowered to handle any stress and obstruction in their coming life. (Photo by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Kashmiri girl holds her brother in the doorway of their home while watching protesters shout pro-freedom and anti-Indian slogans during mourning and protests held in downtown Srinagar on August 22, 2016, following the killing of teenager Irfan Ahmed by security forces. Teenager Irfan Ahmed was killed after he was hit in the chest by a teargas canister fired by Indian security forces to quell pro-freedom protests in the Kashmiri capital on August 21. More than 60 civilians have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces, and thousands more injured in the worst violence to hit the Himalayan region since 201. Indian-administered Kashmir has been in the grip of almost daily anti-India protests and rolling curfews sparked by the killing on July 8 of a popular rebel leader, Burhan Wani, in a gunfight with government forces. (Photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP Photo)

A little girl seen waiting in a queue to participate in the Kumari Puja ritual in Kolkata, India on March 30, 2023. Kumari Puja is an Indian Hindu Tradition mainly celebrated during the Durga Puja / Basanti Puja / Navratri according to Hindu calendar. Kumari actually describes a young virgin girl from the age 1 to 16 who is getting worshipped during the transition of Ashtami / Navami tithi of Durga Puja / Navaratri according to Hindu mythology. (Photo by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Kashmiri Muslim girl reacts to camera as she attends recitation classes of the holy Quran during the fasting month of Ramadan in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Sunday, March 26, 2023. Muslims across the world are observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan, where they refrain from eating, drinking and smoking from dawn to dusk. (Photo by Mukhtar Khan/AP Photo)

Members of South Korean girl group Gfriend rehearse in Seoul December 23, 2014. Thousands of Korean children dream of becoming household names like rapper Psy, whose 2012 “Gangnam Style” video was a global YouTube hit, often putting up with punishing schedules in the hope of one day making it big in the music industry. A recent survey of pre-teens showed that 21 percent of respondents wanted to be K-pop (Korean pop) stars when they grow up, the most popular career choice. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

Brenda, a Honduran girl who is seeking asylum in the U.S., is carried from the Rio Grande in distress, where she had been bathing across the river from a Brownsville, Texas U.S. Customs and Border Protection tent facility as immigration hearings were being held by video teleconference, in Matamoros, Mexico September 12, 2019. Most of the people living in an encampment near the Gateway International Bridge have been sent back under the “Remain in Mexico” program, officially named Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). (Photo by Veronica G. Cardenas/Reuters)

“Elat’ma, the Ryazan Oblast region of Russia. This small town is only 300 kilometers (186 miles) from modern Moscow but remains 60 years in the past, dominated by the spirit of socialism. The air of the communist ‘50s can be seen in the town’s architecture, celebrations and other occurrences. But neither its beauty nor its ties to a socialist past brought photographer Anastasia Rudenko to this village. Elat’ma is unique in that it functions as a town for mentally disabled people”. – Michelle Cohan via CNN. (Photo by Anastasia Rudenko)