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)

Members of a teenage girl gang convincing an unwilling recruit to join the gang, circa 1955. (Photo by Vecchio/Three Lions)

Yingluck Shinawatra speaks with members of Parliament as the Thai parliament officially elected her as the country's first female Prime Minister August 5, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. In the lower house, 296 of the legislature's 500 members voted for Yingluck. Three members voted against and 197 abstained.Thai's cast their ballots back on July 3, 2011. Yingluck Shinawatra, is the younger sister of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup. This is Thailand's 4th election on 7 years as the country continues on a bumpy road to democracy.
(Photo by Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)

An elephant calf yawns as mahouts paint elephants ahead of celebrations for the water festival of Songkran in Ayutthaya, Thailand on April 11, 2019. The annual elephant Songkran event is held to promote the tourism industry. Songkran Festival is held also to mark the Thai traditional New Year falling annually on 13 April, and it is celebrated with people splashing water and putting powder on each other faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the past year. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Central Bangkok and the Chao Phraya River are seen from an abandoned skyscraper in Bangkok April 19, 2015. The abandoned building, known as Satorn Unique, dubbed the “ghost tower” was destined to become one of Bangkok's most luxurious residential addresses but construction was never completed as the Thai economy was hit during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Now, many travellers visit and explore 49-storey skyscraper. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

A park worker holds a monitor lizard at Lumpini park in Bangkok, Thailand, September 20, 2016. More than 400 of the Monitor lizards in the park will be caught by Thai authorities to relocate the reptile to a wildlife breeding center in the effort to control the creature population in the public park after the monitor lizard disturbing and causing several minor accident of people who jogging and cycling at the Lumpini Park. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)