“I do not sing to entertain. My singing is part of a meditational practise,” said Ani Choying Drolma, a Buddhist nun and musician from Nepal, during the sound check before her performance in the city. Performing for the first time in Chennai, Choying sang at a fund raiser organised by Mukti, a charitable group that provides artificial limbs and calipers to patients free of cost.
When Choying ran away from home at the age of 13 to escape from her physically abusive father, she joined the monastery where she learnt the chants she sings today. Little did she know then that she would become a popular musician and tour the world one day.
“I'm not trained in music. What I will be singing today are all traditional melodies that do not have notation but are learnt orally,” she said. And as Choying began her first song, it became apparent that Choying was indeed destined for music. The microphone took to her almost immediately as her beautiful voice navigated the different aspects of the chants.
She began the evening with a composition by Guru Padmasambhava who brought Buddhism to Tibet. Before each song, Choying spoke to her audience about the song she was about to sing and sometimes even narrated a little anecdote about it.
Her words reflected her humility and also gave the audience an inkling of a delightful sense of wit that Choying possessed.
The invocation song was followed by mantras and spiritual songs from the Himalayan Buddhist tradition. With eyes shut in devotion, she chanted the mantras with a concentration that was only disturbed by the resounding applause at the end of the song.
Choying used props such as a drum and a bell in the second composition which she described as a “supplication song of Buddhist masters. It is sung with a drum and a bell to wake our inner wisdom, to wake Buddhas and Bodhisattvas”.
That Choying was indeed meditating and not singing to entertain became obvious as the hours passed. She then sang a Nepali song whose lyrics bespoke the teachings of Buddha. As Choying put it in her words, “In the eyes of the flower, the world appears as a flower and in the eyes of a thorn, the world appears as a thorn”.
Her next song “Meethu muskaan” was a ‘modern-day spiritual song’- one that was tailor-made to take the message of Buddha to the youth of Nepal in a language that they find appealing. “Some elders object to my work by saying that nuns should not be singing songs. But I believe I’m following what Buddha has said. He said that one ought to be skilful according to time, space and people.
And that one should be kind and thoughtful,” she added.
The exceptional quality of Choying’s singing was enhanced by her ability to modulate her voice.
While being absorbed in the philosophy of the song, she also showcased her musical competence through note and voice variations.
At the end, Choying sang a feast song and a lullaby. The latter, as Choying said, “was a song that made this Buddhist nun a pop star”. “Mothers in Nepal were happy when this song came out and they said to me that I had made their work very easy.” Choying closed with the chanting of ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ and the Gayatri Mantra.
Paintings were also auctioned at the fundraiser to raise money for Mukti’s activities.
