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Words by Tassia Kobylinska Illustration by Katja Spitzer
Wouldn’t it be nice sometimes if, instead of getting on your nerves all the time, your parents, an older sister or the bossy teacher would just leave you be? Or maybe they would bow down at your feet, instantly being silent at your command. And if you are tired of the same old routine of school, homework, school, homework, you would not have to go! This probably sounds too good to be true, but in a small country, tucked between India and China, this actually is true. A little girl lives, quite literally, as a living goddess, only it’s not quite the fairytale it sounds like. Nepal is a country whose main religions of Hinduism and Buddhism recognise over thirty three million different gods and goddesses. One of these is alive and well in the form of a young girl sitting in an ancient temple in the country’s capital, Kathmandu. She is called the Kumari, which translates as ‘an unmarried girl’.
This is a tradition unique to Nepal. A young girl, usually about 4 or 5 years old, is chosen to become a living goddess, to represent good fortune and unity in the country. She is taken to live in Kathmandu, in an old temple in the heart of an ancient square, surrounded by temples and the old king’s palace. She leaves her own family and lives there with a family of traditional Kumari caretakers; she will stay there until she becomes a teenager.
‘Men in terrifying masks jump out at her in the dark’.
It is not clear when this tradition began, but the most popular theory points to a Nepali King from the 17th century. It is said that the King used to have a close relationship with a powerful goddess called Taleju. Every evening she would visit the King and together they would play dice and discuss matters of politics. One evening the king, who was falling in love with the goddess, reached out to touch her. Taleju was so offended that she disappeared, taking with her the protection and wellbeing she had provided for the king. Before long, the king became so distressed that the goddess agreed to return and offer her protection, but she would only return in the form of a young girl. To this day, a Kumari has sat in the temple as a living goddess. When she starts having her periods, or if she even loses any blood from a cut, she is no longer seen as the goddess. A new
So what is it like to be a Kumari? First, the Kumari does not go to school. She lives in the temple and only plays with the children of the family who now look after her. She is not meant to speak and she is carried everywhere, so that she doesn’t fall or cut herself. Daily worship starts in the morning and visitors come with offerings of money, fruit, flowers and other gifts. They bow down to her as she sits regally on her throne, with her distinctive make up, headdress and red and gold robes. She is only allowed out of the temple once a year during an autumn festival. Then she is paraded around in a chariot and the King of Nepal comes to worship her.
‘She is only allowed out of the temple once a year’.
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KUMARI: THE LIVING GODDESS OF NEPAL
Kumari goddess is then chosen. Parents put forward their daughter for the role, even though she will have to leave their home. They see it as a great privilege although they will have to worship her themselves! A royal priest selects a few girls and checks for 32 physical qualities. Then each girl's bravery is put to the test, by being forced to spend the night in a temple, alone, in the dark. Men in terrifying masks jump out at her in the dark, and she has to walk amongst the heads of sacrificed buffalo in the temple grounds. In the morning, if the girl is calm and collected, then it is decided that she will be the Kumari.
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If you think this all sounds too extreme for a little girl to bear you are not alone. Although it is a unique and extraordinary tradition, more and more children’s rights organisations are protesting for this little girl. The Supreme Court of Nepal recently ruled that the little girl, goddess or not, should have the same human rights as others — the right to go to school and play with friends and develop like any other child. So whether this tradition will last for long in the modern world, at least in this current form, is a big question. What do you think? Is it wrong to take away a young girl’s freedom like this, or should an ancient tradition be protected at all costs?
What would you do if you were a god or goddess? Send in a drawing of yourself as a god or goddess!
Tassia Kobylinska is the director of the documentary Kumari: the Living Goddess of Nepal.
* ‘Happy birthday, dear Reinhold’.
The Mountain Calls by Ana Albero
Messner’s first childhood memory was the gigantic vanilla pudding his grandmother made for his 4th birthday in 1948.
Pudding became Messner’s obsession. He was convinced that a great vanilla pudding mountain range existed somewhere. At 13, he started climbing with his brother, Günter.
In 1970, Reinhold & Günter reached the top of the Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas. Günter was freezing to death but then something extraordinary happened!
* ‘What's for dinner tonight?’
* ‘Well, that's just wonderful’.
Finally, on a cold winter morning in 2004 his biggest dream came true.
* ‘Thanks’
* ‘Come on!’
This is Reinhold Messner, one of the greatest mountain climbers of all time.
Messner decided to start climbing the next morning. He spent the afternoon doing one of his favourite things.
Unfortunately, Hans Kammerlander had reached the pudding peak ten minutes before Messner did.
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Europe in 1914
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EVOLVING WITH MAPS
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So next time you look at a map of the world, you had better check that it is up to date, because they don't stay the same for very long. And make sure you don’t throw away any old maps, because looking for extinct countries can be a lot of fun, especially if you can work out which new ones have replaced them.
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And since there is so much diversity within countries, let alone between different countries, it can be difficult to agree sometimes. Even countries that seem as friendly as Britain and France still have disputes over seemingly silly things like the prices of cows.
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Over time some countries split apart, others merge together, and some disappear or even reappear. This is often because of wars and disputes, like those in Yugoslavia in the 1990s which broke it into six new countries. In other cases, people living in existing countries (sometimes
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Often people in the same country will all speak the same language, but this is not always the case. In Switzerland, there are four official languages — French, German, Italian, and Romansh — and some children learn to speak all of them at school. Just imagine having to write your homework in four different languages every night!
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Europe in 2013
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Countries are founded by people who believe they have a territory that belongs to them. Or they believe that they all have common interests — that by joining together they will have more power or will become more prosperous. Sometimes it seems that countries have been around forever, but in fact many are very new. Before 1990, Germany was two different countries: East Germany and West Germany. And although parts of Italy are very old, it has only had its current shape — like a woman’s boot — for 150 years. Further back in history, many of the countries we know today didn’t exist at all. The most important places weren’t countries at all, but cities like Hamburg and Venice.
Because of all these changes, history is full of extinct countries — you won’t find Bohemia or Lazistan on a modern map! And other countries have changed their names — Sri Lanka used to be called Ceylon and Rhodesia is now called Zimbabwe. However, in recent years many more countries have been created than have become extinct, like the 15 countries created in 1991 when the Soviet Union split up. The newest country to join the United Nations is South Sudan, in the east of Africa, which only became independent in July 2011.
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called ‘separatists’ or ‘nationalists’) demand that a new country is created. This is happening in Spain right now, where the Catalan people from the north of Spain are deciding whether to vote to become a separate nation. The Catalonians do after all speak a different language from the rest of Spain.
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When you look at a map of Europe today, it might seem like this is what Europe always looked like. Comparing maps from different years of course reveals how countries’ shapes and sizes and even their names change dramatically over time. Maps are in fact a fantastic way to study history.
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Words by Alastair Evans Illustration by Ellie Andrews
Alastair Evans lives in a small cold country. He has a job in an office, but he’d rather be swimming.
Can you see the borders of the countries changing over time? Which countries on the 1914 map still exist today? How many new countries have been established since 1914?
‘An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds began with a very simple idea, that I wanted to photograph budgies. I met a great deal of people (mostly men) who were very knowledgeable about their hobby and only too happy to share it with me. Their enthusiasm became infectious so that by simply photographing a species I felt I was adding it to my collection.’ Luke Stephenson
Do you know who is who? To give you a clue, there are two Lovebirds! Gouldian Finch • Bourkes • Red Canary • Zosterops Pekin Robin • Lovebird • Conures • Diamond Sparrow You can find the right answers on our website!
The Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds
www.incompletedictionary.com
The answer to the mystery in Issue #1 is Priscilla the hippo.
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Why money is a game of Let’s Pretend Or ‘How to Create Money with a Scrap of Paper and a DS Game’
Words by Andrew Verity Illustration by Laura Bird
You hand the note to Letitia. She knows that with that note, she can be sure of getting a DS game back. After all, if you don’t bring your DS game in, the teacher will have to find one, because her signature is there on the note. So Letitia can be sure she’s not giving her game away for nothing.
When she does agree to give it to you, you know you owe Emily something. You promise to return the favour. She knows that, being a good friend, you would do the same for her. You promise that if she gives it to you, she won’t regret it. So she hands it over.
Now imagine it slightly differently. The person with the Club Penguin game you want is Letitia Matchbox-Smith, the stuckup girl who sits at the front. She doesn’t play it much and you know she doesn’t care for it. You have another DS game, Moshi Monsters, which you are no longer interested in. You badly want to play Club Penguin now and don’t want to wait. How do you get Letitia to part with it?
You go to the teacher and promise her that you will bring in Moshi Monsters later in the week. She knows you have a Moshi game and also knows you keep your promises. Because she believes you (she gives you credit), she is willing to write out a note for you. On it, she writes; ‘Whoever holds this note can claim one DS game from me. Signed, the Teacher’. You promise her you will bring in your Moshi game and she hands the note to you.
Imagine for a minute that you live in a world with no money. Now imagine that in this strange world (much easier for a child to imagine than a grown-up), your best friend Emily comes to school with something you would like: the latest Club Penguin game for the DS. You want it, really badly. Emily is not a big Club Penguin fan. She might even give it away to you.
CREDIT What Emily is doing here is giving you ‘credit’. The word comes from an old Latin word meaning ‘belief’. When you promise to pay her back, Emily believes you. Later in the year, you get a Christmas present that you don’t like much. You decide to pay her back by giving it to her. You and Emily are square; you have settled your debts.
Then you have a brainwave. Letitia and you don’t trust each other. But you both trust the teacher. What if the teacher made the promise, instead of you?
BA RT E R Well, if you have the Moshi game at school, you could simply offer to swap games with Letitia. This is what people did before money was invented: swapping, also known as ‘barter’. It is like any other kind of swapping: you give me something I want and I give you something you want. Now imagine you left Moshi Monsters at home. How do you then get Club Penguin? Well, you might promise Letitia you’ll pay her back and bring in the Moshi game later in the week. If she trusted you as Emily does, she might agree to give it to you now.
I O U ’s But she doesn’t believe your promise. In other words, she won’t give you credit. To give Club Penguin to you now, she needs something more. She needs to be sure that when she hands over the game, she won’t lose out. You offer to write her a note: what they call an IOU (I owe you). ‘I promise to give you one DS game. Signed, Me’. That would work if it were Emily. But because Letitia doesn’t believe you, she is not interested in your note.
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‘It costs only a fraction of a penny to print each fiver.’ You give Letitia the note, and she gives you Club Penguin. (Later in the week, you bring in the Moshi Monsters for the DS, and give it to the teacher.) Then Letitia stops to think. This note from the teacher is actually quite useful. Whoever holds it can get a DS game off the teacher. So anyone who wants a DS game will want this note. She’s always wanted her friend Drusella’s collection of Sylvanian Families; and Drusella wants a
new DS game. She could give the teacher’s note to Drusella. Or she could give it to Orson, another DS fan, in exchange for his remote-controlled helicopter. In fact, you can hand that note to anyone who wants a DS game, and get something from them in exchange. It’s as if the note can BUY things. MONEY Guess what? You have just invented money! (Or at least, re-invented it.) In fact, that note you got from the teacher is just like a twenty pound note. That is all money is. A promise that you will get paid back, from someone you believe. And the key to it all, as you can see, is that even if you don’t believe each other, you believe the teacher. The teacher is credible — meaning ‘believable’. If Letitia didn’t believe the teacher, she wouldn’t hand over the game, and it is only because she believes the teacher that she does.
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P RO M I S E TO PAY T H E B E A R E R Well, it’s for the same reason Letitia is willing to give away a DS game for a piece of paper. It is a promise from the teacher. Or in this case, the Queen. Letitia believes the teacher. And the grown-ups believe the Queen.
Your teacher’s note works just like normal money. Everyone who likes DS games would like a note from the teacher saying they can claim a DS game. And even those who don’t play DS would like the note — because they could use it to buy things from people who do play DS. So who plays the teacher’s role for grownups? Here’s a clue. Her face is printed on every five, ten and twenty pound note. Her notes are just like your teacher’s promise. Except instead of writing ‘Whoever holds this note can claim one DS game’, her notes promise something else. It is, of course, the Queen.
Ask your dad to let you borrow a fivepound note. Just to the left of the point where the Queen’s curly hair tucks under her crown, it says, ‘I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of’, then underneath it says, ‘FIVE Pounds’. It’s then signed on behalf of the Queen by Andrew Bailey, the chief cashier of the Bank of England. (I’ve interviewed him; he seemed like a nice man.) What’s the difference between your teacher’s note and the Queen’s banknote? Well, one is written on a scrap of paper by your teacher; the other is printed with coloured ink on special water-marked paper. But is there any other difference?
ST E R L I N G S I LV E R When the word ‘pound’ was first used for money, in the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Offa (famous for digging a big ditch between England and Wales), it actually meant what it said. If you had 240 silver pennies, they would weigh a pound. (There used to be 240 pennies in the pound, right up to 1971, when they changed it to 100.)
So if the Queen (or King) promised to pay you five pounds, it would mean five pounds in weight of silver pennies. That’s
why the word ‘sterling’ is used for our currency; it’s a word used to measure the value of silver. People would count money — by weighing it. When banknotes were first issued in Britain — by William III in about 1690 — it was because he didn’t have enough silver to pay his soldiers to fight a war. So he paid for the war with pieces of paper promising silver. Because people believed his promises, they accepted the paper instead of the silver. G OL D STA N DA R D Later, when the silver was running low, they switched to gold. Until about 100 years ago, you could take your fiver to a bank and collect — not five pounds of silver — but a fixed number of gold coins. In the US, you could do this — in theory — right up until 1971. That is what they used to call the ‘gold standard’.
It seemed to make sense. Your banknotes were valuable because they were a promise of gold. But there was always a worry. If everyone wanted the gold they had been promised, would there be enough in the bank to pay them? Well, just under 100 years ago, the Great War broke out (it wasn’t called the First World War until after the second one). The government was spending so much of its gold buying things from other countries that, even if only a few thousand people wanted to cash in their bank notes for gold, they couldn’t have paid. So the government told people that if they wanted their gold, they couldn’t have it. Instead, the Queen would simply
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The fiver may be fancier, but they make it on clever printing presses that go very fast. It costs only a fraction of a penny to print each fiver. So why is it worth 5 pounds? Not because of the ink or paper. Adults give each other valuable things in exchange for those fivers, from DS games to chocolate bars to earrings. For enough of them, they’d give away their car or even their house. Now even the silliest grownup wouldn’t do that if they thought it was just any old paper printed with fancy ink, that cost less than a penny to make. Why do all the people who carry fivers around in their pockets and purses believe they are worth anything more than the paper they are written on? Why do they believe they are worth something?
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‘If everyone wanted the gold they had been promised, would there be enough in the bank to pay them?’
P a as valuable. As long as they did, you could still buy stuff. So you wouldn’t mind getting paid in notes. As long as you also got paid more notes for working, it didn’t matter that you needed more notes for buying things. And it has carried on like that ever since. Money is worth something, not because you can swap it for gold (or a DS game). It’s worth something simply because we all agree to accept that it’s worth something. The Queen’s face appears on a note, with her chief cashier’s signature, saying she agrees to pay something to the bearer in exchange for the note. But we all know it’s made up. She couldn’t pay gold — or silver — or a DS game — for all the fivers out there. Even if she wanted to. The money is worth something because — and only because — we all believe it is worth something. And that is all it takes. Your fiver, or tenner, or twenty is just a fancy print on watermarked paper that costs a fraction of a penny to produce. But as long as we all go along with the idea that the fiver is worth something, it can be used to buy things. And that means it is worth having, even though there’s no gold — or silver — or DS game — involved. It may sound shocking. But money is a grown-up game of ‘let’s pretend’.
Andrew Verity is a financial corresppondent and presenter for the BBC. He presents Wake up to Money horribly early, (5.30am!) on BBC Radio Five Live.
declare that that five pound note was worth five pounds, not because you could change it for gold, but because she said so. T H E VA LU E O F M O N E Y Why should anyone believe the promise on the note, with no gold to back it up? Did it matter? Well, at first, it did. When they realised you couldn’t get gold for
your pound notes, people didn’t think they were worth as much. So there was ‘inflation’. You needed many more notes to buy the same things. But then it settled down. People realised that what counted wasn’t whether you could get gold for your note. It was whether other people accepted the notes
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RAID BY MASKED INVADERS Words by Grandpa Bike Illustration by Claudia Boldt
It is three in the morning and there is a scurrying noise outside my tent. They are gathering for a gang raid. I slowly lift the flap and shine a torch toward the rumpus and pick up four yellow eyes underneath the big wooden box that is meant to keep food supplies out of the way of these crafty critters. Raccoons have loosened a board under the box, found a way in and are feasting on my supplies. This is New Brighton Beach campsite, one of California’s 280 State Parks, and I have been cycling my way down the US west coast, camping on the way with a one-man tent that is a bit on the small side and requires some undignified exits and entries. Such as now. Angered by the raccoons, I storm out of my tent on my hands and knees into the night. I charge at the box, shouting in a way I think will terrify the animals. About four of them retreat — but not very far. They are not daunted by me or my torch and they calmly regroup about 10 feet away.
I carefully open the box door and shine a light inside. On the bottom shelf sit two young racoons munching their way through a loaf of bread and my favourite biscuits. They give me a look as if to ask if something was wrong and then saunter off to join their family. Big raccoons are about the size of a medium-sized dog or an over-fed cat (40 to 70cm in length and a body weight of 3.5 to 9kg).
Earlier in the trip, one of them started to make off into the woods with a bag containing my daughter’s passport — and some fruit. I shouted at it and it dropped the loot.
‘ C ra f t y c r i t te r s ’
Park wardens say raccoons are unlikely to harm humans unless cornered. Campsite managers add that campers should not take food — or even toothpaste — into their tent, as the masked invaders may find a way in. Yes, a nuisance, but it was hard not to like these clever animals who have figured out how to out-fox us humans — except they are raccoons.
They managed not only to get into this supposedly raccoon-proof box but they opened my bike bag and fished out goodies. While bears present a worry for campers further inland, raccoons are the big nuisance encountered by campers along the magnificent California coast. They are masters at finding their way into rubbish bins and anywhere they can find food. Their masked face markings give them the ideal burglar look.
Have you ever met a wild animal face-to-face? What happened? Can you share your experience and what to do or not to do?
then (AGAIN)
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Interviews by Beth Hardisty, age 11 & Grandma Mary Rosalind
Illustration by Rose Blake
When my grandma was 11 [in Canada] it was, well, a very long time ago!!! So we decided to exchange questions to find out about when we each were 11. Here are our questions, and answers. Why don’t you ask your grandma or grandfather some questions as well!
Beth asks Grandma Mary Rosalind:
Grandma Mary Rosalind asks Beth:
When you were 11, what was your favourite activity? I liked skating in my backyard in my snowsuit and mittens, twirling around on the ice that the fathers had flooded and frozen. I loved going fast and practising tricks!
What are your favourite leisure activities? Reading, doing drama and listening to music.
In the year you were 11, what was the main news story? Probably when King George VI died and Queen Elizabeth II became queen. I was quite shocked when I heard the news. My mother came in and exclaimed, ‘George has died!!!’ and I thought she was talking about our milkman, also called George! What music did you listen to? The popular music at the time was: ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’, ‘Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart’ and ‘You belong to me’.
And our interview came to a close there. We both turned off our Skype and were left knowing more about the other one. Isn’t it strange how different it is now?
What would you do if you won £1 million? I would go on a colossal shopping spree and then give loads of money to charity and then buy a cottage on a lake in Canada! What is your favourite type of book to read at the moment? Probably classics like Pollyanna and Little Women alongside the Sherlock Holmes detective novels. I really enjoyed Anthony Horowitz’s book that was based on Sherlock Holmes. It was not quite as good as the originals, though it came pretty close!!
If you would like to interview your grandparent, please email us and tell us why.