Dechen Shak-Dagsay: Tina Turner's friend reveals the music icon was 'curious' about afterlife

2023-05-30 08:25

'She was preparing for the next life. Tina is not gone. Her spirit and her energy continues,' said Dechen Shak-Dagsay

LOS ANGLES, CALIFORNIA: Tina Turner’s close friend and Buddhist singer has revealed how the singer spent her last days, and it is quite interesting! Dechen Shak-Dagsay in an exclusive interview shared that the 'Proud Mary' artist chose to stay away from step back from public life when she knew the time was not left much, and prepared for the afterlife. She also claimed that she was a devout Buddhist and "was not afraid of dying."

Though Turner was raised in a Christian family, back in Tennessee, she was not fond of the ‘oppressive’ religion. Rather, once embracing Buddhism, the singer found ‘salvation’ from the abuse she had to go through from her first husband Ike, as per Shak-Dagsay. “Tina told me, ''I'm not afraid of dying.'' She was curious to see what is coming,' Shak-Dagsay reacted to Turner's passing away. The legendary singer died last week at her home in Zurich, Switzerland, at the age of 83.

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'We developed an intense relationship'

Shak-Dagsay and Turner released three albums together at a music studio near the star’s lake-side home outside Zurich. “When Tina Turner was in that toxic relationship with her first husband Ike she was introduced to Buddhism by a friend,'' Shak-Dagsay told the Daily Mail. “When we were recording together we developed an intense relationship. And she told me she would never have been able to overcome all the pain she suffered and the struggle she endured during her first marriage without reciting the Buddhist mantras. It gave her the strength to carry on. Tina told me she had been raised as a Christian but she found the church structure too oppressive," she added.

'Was preparing for the next life'

Shak-Dagsay also feels it was Turner who opened the path for next-gen artists, such as Beyonce, Rihanna, and Madonna. “They would not have been there, had there not been Tina Turner, who went on the stage first in the male-dominated music world. And then for her to say: 'I need to retreat for this time of inner preparation.' She was preparing for the next life. Tina is not gone. Her spirit, her energy continue. And she had the freedom to prepare for that,'' Shak-Dagsay added.