Ani Choying Dolma

Ani Choying Dolma (born 1971 in Kathmandu, Nepal), also known as Choying Drolma, is a Buddhist nun and musician from the Nagi Gompa nunnery in Tibet. She is known in Nepal and throughout the world for bringing many Tibetan chants and feast songs to mainstream audiences.Ani Choying was born in 1971 in Kathmandu, Nepal to Tibetan exiles. She decided at an early age to pursue monastic life, and was accepted into the Nagi Gompa nunnery at the age of 12. For a number of years, nunnery resident Lama Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche taught Ani Choying the music that she is famous for performing. In 1994, guitarist Steve Tibbetts visited the nunnery and eventually recorded much of the Tibetan music with Ani Choying on two albums. The recordings, titled Chö and Selwa, were released to critical acclaim (see Choying Drolma & Steve Tibbetts). Tibbetts and Ani Choying embarked on small performance tours, which included shows at several historical Tibetan monasteries. http://www.choying.com/ Running in its 8th year, Arya Tara School which was started in January 2000 is a flagship project of the Nuns Welfare Foundation (NWF), an NGO founded in 1998 by the world renowned Ani Choying Dolma. It started as a small school at a temporary site in Kathmandu with only seven nuns in the first year has over a period of only eight years grown phenomenally to an establishment that boasts a five storied, well equipped live-in institution of learning in Pharphing (Setidevi VDC-3, 18 km from Kathmandu) with a capacity to accommodate more than 50 nuns. Located in a serene and spacious setting overlooking the Kathmandu valley, the new school building is ingeniously built to withstand earthquakes and meets the needs of this growing spiritual/educational community; it includes several classrooms, a meditation hall, dormitories, computer lab, library, a kitchen and dining hall, storage room, office, proper toilets and bathrooms as well as rooms for the teachers and administrative staff. Living and learning in an environment with positive female role model is an integral component of the Arya Tara education. The new school in Pharphing which, started operations from July 2005, is now home to over 50 nuns who come from some of the poorest and most remote areas of Nepal, Tibet and India. The school remains open Monday to Friday and each school day begins with prayers and meditation after which classes resume from 09:45 am to 3:45 pm. There are frequent field trips to local pilgrimage sites, the zoo, museums etc to enrich the students overall spiritual and educational experiences. And each student learns to take responsibility for the school by doing small jobs such as helping with the cooking and cleaning, buying school supplies and working in the garden. Classes are taught by eight full time paid teachers and other additional paid staffs include a cook, housekeeper, office assistant and director of the Nuns Welfare Foundation who assists with fundraising, administration, volunteer coordination and public relations. ................... BLISS:What you see is what your heart is.Your heart is your world. You are happy then our world is happy. ------------------- Translation of this song : In the eyes with flowers,flowers is the world. In the eyes of thorn,thorn is the world. The shadow is cast according to the object. In the eyes of thorn,thorn is the world. In the eyes with flowers,flowers is the world. In the eyes of thorn,thorn is the world. May my heart be pure. May my words be like of the Buddha. May my feet never kill any insects. In a beautiful eye opens a beautiful world. In the eyes of thorn,thorn is the world.In the eyes with flowers,flowers is the world. In the eyes of thorn,thorn is the world. May I see the bright moonlight in a dark night and hear the music of life with the moments of bliss. In a transparent heart opens a transparent world. In the eyes of thorn,thorn is the world. In the eyes with flowers,flowers is the world. In the eyes of thorn,thorn is the world. The shadow is cast according to the object. In the eyes of thorn, thorn is the world. In the eyes with flowers,flowers is the world.