Touching Hearts with Compassion and Music Interview with Ani Choying Drolma - Pema Rinchen

TOUCHING HEARTS WITH COMPASSION AND MUSIC INTERVIEW WITH ANI CHOYING DROLMA - PEMA RINCHEN -

“Through my songs, I seek to reach all the nooks and crannies of Nepal in an effort to improve the lives of children and adolescents.”

- Ani Choying Drolma

Ani Choying Drolma is an internationally-acclaimed humanitarian, singer and UNICEF Nepal Ambassador whose mesmerising and wonderful voice has earned her the name, “Nepal’s Singing Nun”. Ani Chöying Dolma was born on 4 June 1971 in Kath- mandu, Nepal is a Buddhist nun and musician from the Nagi Gompa nunnery in Nepal. Prior to the powerful video that catapulted her to international popularity when Ani first teamed up with UNICEF in 2013, she was already an extremely known in Nepal and throughout the world for bringing many Tibetan Buddhist chants and feast songs to mainstream audiences due to her collabora- tion with guitarist Steve Tibbetts in 1994 on two critically acclaimed albums, titled Chö and Selwa where they later embarked on small performances and mainly toured around America and Europe.

Even before she was appointed UNICEF Nepal’s first ever National Ambassador on 11 April 2014 at a special event presided by the Rt. Honorable President of Nepal Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, Ani was already a champion for children and women’s rights with her efforts in advocating for women and girls’ education, including having a school for nun. In her new role as ‘the voice of Ne- pali children, Ani will help UNICEF’s clarion call to protect Nepali children and adolescents from violence and, create a happy and safe environment where they can grow up to become functional adults, good parents, and responsible citizens later in life’.

For You Information is indeed honoured to have recently interviewed Ani Choying on her Buddhist work, music and humanitarian endeavors. Buddhism and Youth There has been an increase in the youth being more skeptical in religions including Buddhism.

How do you think this skepticism can be changed? It’s very normal to be skeptical as it is human nature to doubt. Skepticism always exists even in the past. It seems to many that people are relatively more skeptical nowadays but this might be exaggerated only because of the prominent change in media landscape and its impact on the ways in how people communicate; more frequent and spontaneous idea exchange and opinion sharing on social media. That’s why it seems that there is much skepticism. As a Buddhist, I think simply by sharing kindness to oneself and others through our speech and action is the best way we can contribute to a positive change.

p60 - 61 INTERVIEW.indd 60 21/4/2017 2:38:57 PM How do you think your music provides a good avenue for the youth to gain exposure, acceptance and love for Buddhism? I am blessed and lucky enough that young people from my homeland appreciate my music. Nepal is the birthplace of Buddha Sakyamuni, however less and less young people are interested in the Buddha’s teaching. Young people don’t seem to enjoy going to monasteries for teachings like the older generations did. If we want to communicate effectively with someone, we will have to use the way of communication that works for the person. Therefore, I started recording songs in Nepalese more than 10 years ago. My songs are not tragic love songs. Instead, they serve to share In your Buddhist work especially messages according to the teachings from the Buddha or the great masters before with regard to the area of Bud- us, but packaged with pop music melodies. The success of this particular Nepalese dhist music creation, what do you song, “Phoolko Aankhama”, has shown how effective music can be in conveying the think are the benefits to; words of wisdom from the Buddha. And with the blessings from all the Buddhas and (a) the laity, Bodhisattvas, I’m glad to be able to connect with young people through music. (b) Buddhists, and (c) yourself? How can the older generations of Buddhists better support the growth of the younger ones? I hope people who listen to my I was considered a wild nun back in the days in Nagi Gompa, a nunnery in Kath- music, be it lay the people or Bud- mandu; jumping up and down, running here and there. My behaviour, as a young dhists, can resonate with the man- nun, upset many people for sure. But my teacher never judged me. Instead, he em- tra for achieving peace in mind or braced who I was with enormous love and care. In fact, as a kid, I was so wounded be touched by the words and the and deeply hurt because of the merciless beating by an ignorantly aggressive father. wisdom within. As for myself, my When the senior nuns made complaints about me, my teacher would always tell them fans’ kindness and support to my to leave me alone because I was only a child. My teacher’s compassion healed and music or projects always touched shaped me to be a better person. As days went by, my anger and hatred transformed me. Gratitude is always in my heart. into compassion and understanding. I reconciled with my father before he passed. My teacher’s compassion and kindness is a gift of life and I’m committed to passing on this gift to others within my capacity. Compassion is the answer for this question; as with the willingness to understand different challenges our younger dharma brothers and sisters are facing, we can support them better and wiser. Education, Charity and UNICEF Work You have done much work in providing education and livelihood support to those in need, and also being a UNICEF Nepal ambassador.

On top of organisations you have formed for education and Buddhist studies, what are your future plans? I have founded the Arya Tara School for nuns and Arya Tara Pre-school for providing day care and early childhood education. I will continue to try my best to support the kids for pursuing the level of education they want to achieve. I wish that one day, with the kindness and generosity they have experienced, they will pay it forward, show love and kindness to others. The Star of Hope Free Education Project has started for a year and nearly 100 kids from different parts of Nepal are sent to school with full education, living and boarding expenses covered by our funding. I intend to support a hundred more kids by the end of this year.

I have also founded the Aarogya Foundation which runs a dialysis facility that also aims to increase public awareness (of kidney diseases) programmes in Nepal. We also made tremendous efforts to lobby with the government in particular on the improvement of policies for kidney patients’ care and support. The clinic is now extended to one more location in Kathmandu and I hope we can extend the service to more locations and have a permanent property and building for the operations in future.

How should the public be engaged in helping in a more meaningful way? By any means that is convenient to the person who would like to support us. Any means of support, e.g. sharing our stories on social media, making donations in terms of money or other material support, raising funds for dialysis machines... or helping to build our hospital building etc, will be deeply appreciated. Even a prayer counts. For those who want to understand more about my music or projects, details can be found on www.choying.com.

What do you envision for the various centres you head and your role as UNICEF Nepal Ambassador? What message do you have for people interested to travel to, learn more about or wish to participate in activities in Nepal? As a Buddhist nun and more importantly as a women, I wish to promote the rights of education and violence-free social environment for women and children. I didn’t envision the scale of the projects before they are started. Most of the time, the scope and scale of project was shaped simply according to the resources on hand. But, with the blessings of all the bodhisattvas and supports from the fans and friends, I’ll continue to do what I’m doing, of course in a humble manner and with deep gratitude. I can never do it alone.

I love Nepal. It’s my homeland. Materially, we are not rich. But we are rich, in another sense because the Buddha was born here and many great masters have lived and many still reside here. And we have beautiful mountains, and our people who always wear a big smile on their face. I would like to invite all of you to visit Nepal and enjoy the beauty of our homeland. For those who would like to participate in different activities here with the intention to help those who need help, my heart rejoices with your kindness. One can always participate in any way he or she is comfortable with.

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