When one visits the many temples of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan, in Nepal, one notices something very peculiar. All goddess temples have guardians on either side of the door. On one side, the guardian is a skeleton. On the other side of the deity is a hermaphroditic figure. This figure has both male and female genitalia. This is consistently found in all goddess shrines.

The deity is not represented by an image but by a crevice, or gap in the wall or the floor, representing the womb or the vagina of the goddess. She is addressed as Ajima or the great grandmother of all the local goddesses. These shrines are found in almost every neighbourhood of Kathmandu. They are often surrounded by a circle of stones indicating that these practices could perhaps be as old as civilisation itself. But with the progress of time, there were walls built around these temples. With the walls, came doorways. With the doorways, came the door keepers.