I saw this story and was intrigued by this unconventional woman and her story. I went and checked out her music on iTunes (only 4 albums available, and not the newest one) and it's unique and incredible; I highly recommend giving it a listen!
For more than a decade, Ani Choying Drolma — a most unlikely of rock stars — has shared Buddhism's sacred chants with a growing number of fans worldwide. So far, Drolma has recorded 10 albums, including her latest, Inner Peace II. Some monks have made it big with their chanting, but few, if any, nuns have. Drolma's music combines Tibetan melodies with traditional and contemporary instruments, like singing bowls and synthesizers.
Drolma's voice may sound like a mountain stream, but underneath, her passions are like a storm on top of Mt. Everest. Her vocal power comes from a complicated mixture of devotion, confidence and anger. She confesses that she didn't become a nun out of faith, but rather to escape from her father, who beat her almost every day.
In Kathmandu, everyone knows Drolma. When she's in town, it is nearly impossible to see her. She supports more than a dozen charities through her Nun's Welfare Foundation, she's building Nepal's first kidney hospital and she runs a boarding school for girls. Drolma makes it a point to break convention. She sees her music — and its profits — as a vehicle to create opportunities for women and girls. In 2000, she founded the The Arya Tara school, the first school in Nepal to offer both Western and traditional Tibetan studies to nuns.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
