Trishna Shakya is carried by her father to the palace in Kathmandu where she will live in splendour until puberty

A three-year-old girl in Kathmandu will be anointed today as the city’s latest Kumari, or living goddess, in a lavish ceremony despite calls for the tradition to be banned.

Trishna Shakya will be taken from her family home and moved to a palace in the Nepalese capital, where she will be waited on until she reaches puberty.

The Kumari is not allowed to leave the residence except for 13 holy festivals each year. Her feet are never supposed to touch the ground. For ordinary mortals even a glimpse of the Kumari is believed to bring good luck.

A devotee offers money to the newly appointed Kumari of Kathmandu, Trishna Shakya NAVESH CHITRAKAR/REUTERS

Some activists, however, have called for the practice to be banned, claiming that it amounts to child labour. Former Kumaris have spoken of the difficulty of making the