In the media: Consciousness Online
March 2018 - Mari Plooij writes CD reviews for BewustZijn Online with passion. This time he writes about our CDs by Ani Choying Drolma.
Enchanting
It will stay with me forever. For the first time in my life I travelled alone through India and by chance ended up in a Tibetan monastery in the south of the country. It was a place of absolute peace, where I spent a few days. Hardly any tourists, a sultry heat. I can still see myself sitting in the school building. Children were reciting prayer songs. Many well-behaved, some super naughty. And just singing. The sun had just risen when I walked to a remote place of prayer one morning. I sat there for hours against a pillar. Murmuring monks said their prayers. I meditated with them. And then, out of nowhere, a voice. A young monk sang to himself, soft and subdued. A language I did not understand, but whose holy meaning was clear. So beautiful. That atmosphere will remain in my heart forever.
And so I recently heard the voice of Ani Choying Drolma who brought this atmosphere back to me in one go. Choying Drolma is a Nepalese Buddhist nun who entered the monastery at a young age and managed to escape her harsh father. Her singing talents might never have reached the world if a record producer had not visited the monastery 20 years ago. It was not his goal to score singing talents, because he was looking for inner peace. However, he became fascinated by Ani's wonderfully refined and at the same time powerful voice. It was still in the days of cassette tapes and he made a primitive recording. Back in America he mixed the recording with guitar and brought Choying Drolma to the attention of a colleague who helped to ensure that her music was recorded and became known outside the monastery. Eventually she began to perform all over the world and she still does.
Inner Peace 1 & 2 - Ani Choying Drolma - €12.50 via https://www.thingsthatmakeyoufeelgood.nl
(part of the proceeds go to Tibetan monasteries and to Nepalese families who make fair trade products)
March 2018, Mari Plooij