The Driving, Singing Buddhist Nun

We finally saw Nepal

I can honestly say today we experienced the true beauty of Nepal… in many ways. Glen Joffe, the owner of Primitive in Chicago connected me with Ani Choying Drolma, a Buddhist nun who sings professionally and supports a school for young Buddhist nuns called Arya Tara. Ani has a beautiful voice and tours throughout the world in support of her school. Check it out www.choying.com

She picked us up at noon and took us to a lovely Nepali restaurant that served traditional food. Ani has no ego, but as you walked in the room you knew instantly everyone recognized her. I had invited DeeDee and Bina and they planned to meet us at the school later on.

We discussed my adoption situation and how she founded the school. Of course, my daughter ate a ton of Nepali food! After lunch Ani picked up a friend who was visiting from Germany. She told us her mother, whose passion was Nepal, had supported Ani’s school. Edda came to Nepal to disperse her mother’s ashes in the hillsides. Edda was supposed to be on the plane that crashed here yesterday. She missed the flight.

We drove up the windy road into the hillsides with the Singing Buddhist Nun. She told us there aren’t many nuns who drive.

We came to a sudden stop and Ani declared “we’ll have to walk from here.” No problem we thought…until we got out of the car. The road was extraordinarily muddy and very narrow with a cliff on one side. There had been heavy rains for days and the mud was extremely deep – like quicksand.

I, of course, was carrying Antara and scared to death. But Ani kept walking like this was an everyday part of life. My Tory Burch flip flops were sinking into the mud and I kept thinking what am I doing here carrying my new baby in the mud next to a cliff? My mom and I were really frightened and these photos don’t depict how frightened we were because we had to put the camera away to focus on walking.

When we arrived at Arya Tara, we were greeted by many of the Buddhist nun children who ranged from 7 or so to 18. Many of them have horrifying stories of what brought them to the school – forced marriage at 12, slavery, etc…

We had tea and waited for Dee Dee and Bina to arrive. While we were waiting a few dogs approached us. There are many stray dogs in Nepal and they all look scrawny and a bit scary to me. Antara could not keep her eyes off them. I think it was the first time she ever saw a dog. The dog wagged his tail and came up to us. I was really nervous as I didn’t know how safe the dog was. All of you know me and how much I love dogs, including my Otto, but I was still really nervous. Ani said don’t worry…. these are stray dogs, but they are Buddhist! I took a deep breath and am just happy that Antara loves dogs. Hopefully she will meet Otto soon.

About 30 minutes later from a distance I heard someone yell “Bina, Bina”. I thought wow they are here…how are they going to get through the mud. Then silence. About 5 minutes later Ani’s phone rang and she said they decided to go back. I don’t blame them. Bina is an energetic 4 year old and I wouldn’t want to risk walking with her next to a cliff.

Ani gave us a tour of the school, where approximately 60 girls live and go to school. They follow a traditional curriculum and learn Tibetan, Nepali and English. They also have a course in Thanka painting, which traditionally only boys were allowed to take.

Ani hasn’t done much touring in the states. I told her I’d be happy to help her with PR if I am in Nepal for a while. She thought it was a great idea and even through out there that I could be her manager.

We met many of the lovely girls, including two who accompanied us back to the car. Mom and I were nervous about going back, but the girls let us follow their path and it seemed a bit easier on the way back to the car.

On the way back we could see the rain in the distance above the mountains. We drove down the windy road and as we took a quick turn we saw a beautiful double rainbow across the entire sky.

I knew then that something good is at the end of that rainbow and we’ll be coming home soon.