Melodious chants

When I recite mantras, there is no hope and fear

Kathmandu :

Heard melodies are sweat but those unheard are sweater,” wrote poet John Keats long time back. If you think these words to be true Ani Choying Dolma’s upcoming album ‘Inner Peace’ is the right choice for you. The album features newly composed instrumental music and traditional Buddhist mantra chanting that no one has heard before. The album was launched at The Everest Hotel on June 26. The album is produced and marketed by SAC Music International, which claims the album to be of international standards.

Ani Choying Dolma has already won the heart of many people with her pure, melodious and soothing voice. And to her goes the credit of bringing the traditional Tibetan songs and chants to the masses that were confined earlier to religious practices only and were passed from master to pupil. Since 1997, Ani began performing and recording Cho, the Tibetan mantras, so that, Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike, can receive the blessings by listening to these mantras.

Primarily habituated with reciting mantras and no formal trainings in music, Ani feels free and liberated when she chants these mantras immersed in meditation. “When I recite mantras, there is no hope and fear of listeners liking it or not and I can be myself,” says Ani. However in association with gifted composers like Nhyoo Bajracharya, she believes that she is quickly learning and following the musical notes. “In this album, without spoiling the originality of the traditional melody of these mantras, I have tried to frame it as per my imagination,” says Bajracharya.

But Ani is not doing all this for entertainment. She has a dual mission behind all this. One is that she wants everyone to be blessed by the divine power in these mantras and the other is for even a nobler purpose. All the proceeds from the concerts, both national and international and the money collected from the sale of CDs will go for Arya Tara School of which she is the founder. The school is providing free boarding to 49 nuns aged between 7-23 from remote villages of Nepal, India and Tibet for the past six years and has moved to its own building in Pharping last year. The school imparts modern education along with traditional Buddhist teachings.

“Earlier my listeners used to be mostly foreigners, but for past few years my own people have shown love and appreciation and nothing can be more satisfying than that,”

expresses Ani. Her seventh annual fundraising concert is scheduled to take place at Academy Hall on July 1.