The pure, joyful voices of young nuns filled the brightly lit courtyard of the Arya Tara School in Pharping, Kathmandu. Moments before, my fellow dakini pilgrims and I had offered them songs, singing bowl performances and a synchronised Charya Nritya dance. We offered them as gestures of presence, believing that while donating money is generous, sharing time is embodied love. They replied with a chorus of approval and enthusiasm. Their singing, which matched our dances, was an impromptu gift of sacred sound: a reverberation of their abbess’s mission. It was a direct transmission of Ani Choying Drolma’s transformative Dharma: sound as liberation, compassion as action.

That moment, still resonating within me, is the essence of her extraordinary story.

Ani Choying Drolma’s journey embodies the bodhisattva ideal in modern form. Rising from the depths of personal trauma, she harnessed the sacred power of mantra and chanting not for personal acclaim, but as “skillful means” (upaya) to shatter the cause of her suffering. Her life is a testimony to turning adversity into enlightened action. I have in mind her courageous will to combat the neglect and inequality faced by young girls and nuns in Nepal. Through her music and the institutions that she has built, she demonstrates that true Dharma practice extends beyond the meditation cushion into the tangible relief of suffering, especially through offering education, dignity, and hope to overcome abuse and neglect.

I am reminded of the profound teaching of interdependent origination. Everything has a cause; people who grapple with trauma and difficulty in life inherited their issues from somewhere. From the messy torment of a violent Kathmandu childhood, a lotus of compassion bloomed. A young and desperate girl found sanctuary in monasticism and the chanting of her community. A wandering musician fell in love with that chant and helped her take it across the globe. That popularity and resonance generated resources, and those resources funded schools. Those schools now nurture young voices chanting the Dharma anew.

Ani Choying Drolma’s life is a manifestation of this karmic alchemy. She transformed her personal anguish through Dharma practice into widespread, universal benefit. Sacred sound is the luminous thread weaving it all together.

An encounter with a living dakini

My first glimpse of Ani Choying occurred during a dakini-themed pilgrimage. Our dance mentor, Prajwal Vajracharya, announced her imminent arrival with palpable reverence. Yet she appeared almost unceremoniously, riding a humble moped through Kathmandu’s dusty streets. I remember her dismounting with an effortless grace that indicated both lightness and conviction of purpose. Her presence was immediate and grounding: to me, she was less a distant spiritual figure, and more a “living dakini” in motion. Her aura had the unmistakable vibration of compassion.

Her focus was clear: sustaining the Arya Tara School, which she founded in 1998, and her growing network of nunneries. While once the sale of her CDs fuelled her finances, the shifting tides of the music industry, specifically the digitization of artists’ creations, necessitated new channels, driving her to perform at benefit concerts across Asia.

Our visit to Arya Tara School the next day showed just how incredible her impact was. Beyond the practical gifts of stationery and candies, we offered the intangible, which was our time and shared practice through sound and sacred dance. The nuns joined in the singing, and their unforgettable, unprompted response of a joyful chorus was the fruit of Ani Choying’s labor: young women, once denied opportunity, were now empowered, their voices strong and clear, resonating with the Dharma they embodied. Their songs were pure presence, transmitting a message of resilience and happiness.

Years later, when she visited my hometown of Hong Kong, the opportunity for deeper connection arose. Moved by her generosity and spontaneity, I offered her a painting depicting two singing birds, inspired by the words of the Chinese Dharma Emperor Yongzheng (1678–1735): “Birds can understand the bliss of Zen or Dharma.” She joyfully accepted. As I performed the Sixteen Offering Dance for her, she shared a glimpse of her own past: “When I was young, I loved to dance and sing,” she told me.

To be in her presence is transformative. She carries an infectious energy and emanates a vibrational field of kindness. Her stillness speaks of profound equanimity forged in adversity.

The story unfolds: from suffering to sacred ground

Ani Choying Drolma’s origins lie in profound dukkha and outright injustice. Born to Tibetan refugee parents in Kathmandu in 1971, her childhood was an unforgiving landscape of fear. Her father, a respected traditional folk singer (lhamo performer) by profession, was terrifyingly abusive at home.

From the age of five, she had to labor just to buy time for her survival; any sense of peace or safety was nonexistent. “My father used to abuse me physically,” she recounted. “My father was a sculptor and a very aggressive man, quite frustrated and at times he would direct his frustration at me.” (Wanderink) Living in constant fear for herself and her mother, the karmic breaking point arrived when her father attempted to stab her. At thirteen, propelled by terror and a desperate yearning for refuge, she fled to the hillside nunnery of Nagi Gompa.

There, she encountered the compassionate wisdom of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, a revered Dzogchen master and father of “the happiest man in the world,” Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. He offered not just sanctuary, but spiritual rebirth. With infinite patience and skillful guidance, he helped her navigate the smoldering rage and deep-seated fear within, teaching her to transform her pain through Dharma.

Ordained as Ani Choying Drolma (“Liberating Mother of Dharma”), she immersed herself in rigorous monastic life: philosophy, ritual, meditation, and the profound practice of sacred chanting. Here, sound became her vessel: not merely performance, but devotion made audible, meditation vibrating through form.

Still, she could not help noticing that the suffering she had escaped was actually everywhere in society. She witnessed countless Nepalese girls denied education and trapped in poverty and vulnerability, their potential stifled in a society where nuns were often marginalized compared to monks. Her bodhisattva vow crystallized: No girl should endure her fate. Her mission began gradually through first adopting one girl, then another. But the scale of need was overwhelming. By the late 1990s, her vision for the Arya Tara School was clear, but so was the challenge of funding it sustainably.

Then, her karma bore fruit. From 1993–94, American guitarist Steve Tibbetts, visiting Nagi Gompa, heard the nuns chant. He was struck profoundly by the clarity, power, and spiritual depth of Ani Choying’s voice. Recognizing an opportunity to share this sacred art and generate support, he proposed recording her. Ani Choying, seeing a vital lifeline for her girls, agreed.

The 1997 album Cho (Offering), released on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label, became a global phenomenon. Tibetan Buddhist nuns’ chants, centered on Ani Choying’s extraordinary voice, reached audiences worldwide. She reached outstanding acclaim in Nepal, Europe, Japan, and the Americas. Their sacred sounds had become an engine of liberation.

The unfolding mandala: sound, form, and equanimity

Today, Ani Choying Drolma stands as a modern Dharma heroine. She is the lotus arising from the suffering of Kathmandu society, rooted in profound self-knowledge and unwavering bodhicitta. From a world that devalued women’s spiritual paths, she carved out a revolutionary career of equality and empowerment. Her mission manifests through the Arya Tara School and the Nuns’ Welfare Foundation of Nepal, providing comprehensive education (integrating secular and Buddhist studies), healthcare, and dignity to hundreds, and fundamentally challenging generations of neglect.

Her albums, two in collaboration with Steve Tibbetts, present the world of mandalas through auditory experiences. They weave ancient mantras with her beautiful voice, carrying the essence of Dharma across borders and cultures and making the Buddhist experience accessible through sound. Like Tamino and Pamina’s quest in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, her instrument of salvation is her own voice, channelling liberating mantras.

Ani Choying Drolma’s legacy resounds in the confident voices of educated nuns, in the preserved intricacies of sacred chants echoing through time, and in the undeniable truth that one heart, forged in suffering and dedicated to compassion, can conduct a symphony of change. She is the earthly embodiment of Mother Tara. She has initiated a complete metamorphosis in which suffering dissolves into radiant compassion. Her life is her singing: the Dharma of Sound in motion, a perpetual offering echoing through her schools and concert halls around the world, liberating one voice, one life at a time.

See more

Telling Tales: Choying Drolma, the ‘singing nun’ (Wanderink)

Related features from BDG

From Mandala to Nirvana: The Monk, the Dancer and the Archeologist – A Pilgrimage of Activation
The Vanished Sorceress-Queen and the Skull-Cup Temple: Unearthing the Tangut State’s Final Legacy
The Drummer Who Heard the Deities Whisper: Photographer Peter Van Ham’s Odyssey to Tabo, the Himalayas’ Secret Temple

Related videos from BDG

Ani Choying Drolma – BDG 30th Anniversary Message
INTERVIEW: Ani Choying Drolma discusses her musical journey

More from Mandala Butterfly by Rebecca Wong