Welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service.

Today I'm telling you the story of how one woman went from girl to goddess to financial analyst.

It's December 2010, and 15-year-old Chinira Bajda Charya has just completed her first day in school.

Why was she so late to education? Well, she had spent the last 10 years being worshipped as a living deity.

The feeling was weird because as a goddess you know I was allowed to talk to only a restrictive group of people,

my teachers, my relatives and close friends only and the parents.

But apart from that back in college you have so many teachers, so many students,

it was not that comfortable for me to join in to their conversation.

Ten years before Chinira first set foot in school, she was chosen to be a Kamari,

a child goddess in Nepal worshiped by both Hindus and Buddhists.

Chinira was the Kamari of Patan, meaning she was the second most important goddess in the whole country.

In my personal experience I could feel the difference when I wore the Kamari makeup on

and when I wasn't the full ornaments on when I had to sit on my special throne, the chair.

I used to feel that I was superior to others or I should not speak to anyone.

It automatically comes, you know, no one needs to say that okay do not talk or okay,

you should not show your emotions or something like that.

It comes with the ornaments and with the power that comes with it and so that's what I felt.

For Chinira, putting on the deep red silks of the traditional dress

and painting the giant red and white eye on her forehead was an integral part of being the Kamari.

But how did she become a goddess?

In the first phase we have a ritual where the priests are going to invite the goddess into the girl's body

and the priests are going to like after that ritual the girls were not liked by the goddess.

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