By Tenzin Choephel
Phayul Correspondent
Kathmandu, December 15: Ani Choying Dolma, popularly known as the Tibetan singing nun, gave a live performance to a crowd of over seven hundred Nepalese, including few Tibetans, to help raise funds for the country’s National Kidney Center this evening at the Nepal Academy Hall.
Ani Choying gave a lively performance at the ‘Ani Choying Dolma – Live in Concert’ and said all the proceeds from the concert would be given to the Center. She was supported by ten Nepali musicians in her effort as she sang some of her popular numbers like ‘Phool ko ankha ma’, the Nepali song that topped the country’s music charts in 2006, and her numerous other melodious Buddhist mantra chants.
She also released her latest album, Time, at the evening concert organised by the Rotary Clubs of Kathmandu and Patan in association with Music Nepal and Nuns Welfare Foundation of Nepal.
Tibetan Welfare Officer for Nepal Mr. Trinley Gyatso and Angur Baba Joshi, a local social worker, were the chief guests of the evening concert.
At today’s live concert, Ani Choying started her performance with a soothing prayer song for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader based in India, before she moved on with Nepali songs from her albums, including the hit ‘Phool ko ankha ma, phoolai sansara’ (in the eyes of flower, the world appears as flowers, in the eyes of thorn, the world appears as thorn; suggesting everything depends on how we perceive things in our life).
Two new music videos from her new album were also screened for the audience and also presented a song from it. She emotionally dedicated one of her songs to her late mother as tears rolled down her cheek.
Ani Choying Dolma is a Tibetan nun living in Nepal. She became nun at a young age and shot to fame in Nepal and internationally when she started singing Buddhist Chants and mantras with her gifted unique and melodious soothing voice. ‘Time’ is Ani Choying’s eighth successive album. So far, her all time hit album ‘Moment of Bliss’ released in 2006 remains her most popular album of all time. Her previous albums included many Buddhist mantra chants that captured the wide attention of international listeners as well. Her more recent albums have many Nepali songs in them.
Ani Choying founded the Nuns Welfare Foundation of Nepal in 1998 and established Arya Tara School for nuns at Pharping in January 2000. Her school now has over 50 nuns from Tibet, Nepal and India. Enabling a better life for nuns by providing them high quality secular education as they zealously learn and practice Buddha dharma lies at the heart of Ani Choying’s envisioned dream. And she is already too close to her fulfilling vision.
