Tina Turner - Wikipedia
Religion
Turner sometimes referred to herself as a "Buddhist–Baptist", alluding to her upbringing in the Baptist church where her father was a deacon and her later conversion to Buddhism as an adult.[254]
In a 2016 interview with Lion's Roar magazine, she declared, "I consider myself a Buddhist."[255] The February 15, 1979, issue of Jet magazine featured Turner with her Buddhist altar on the cover.[256] Turner has credited the Liturgy of Nichiren Daishonin and Soka Gakkai International for her introduction to spiritual knowledge.[257][258]
Turner stated in her 1986 autobiography I, Tina that she was introduced to Nichiren Buddhism by Ike Turner's friend Valerie Bishop, who taught her the chant nam-myōhō-renge-kyō in 1973.[259][260] Turner later stated in her 2020 spiritual memoir Happiness Becomes You that her son, Ronnie Turner, first suggested she might benefit from chanting.[261] Turner practiced Buddhism with her neighborhood Soka Gakkai International chanting group.[262] After chanting, Turner noticed positive changes in her life which she attributed to her newfound spiritual practice. "I realized that I had within me everyone I needed to change my life for the better," she said.[262][259] During the hardest times of her life, Turner chanted four hours per day, and although in later life she no longer chanted as much, she still maintained a daily practice.[260] Turner likened Buddhist chanting to singing: "...Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is like a song. In the Soka Gakkai tradition, we are taught how to sing it. It is a sound and a rhythm and it touches a place inside you. That place we try to reach is the subconscious mind. I believe that is the highest place...".[255] Dramatizations of Turner chanting were included both in the 1993 film What's Love Got to Do with It and in the 2021 documentary film Tina.
Turner met with the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, on August 2, 2005. She also met with Swiss-Tibetan Buddhist singer Dechen Shak-Dagsay and in 2009 co-created a spiritual music project with Shak-Dagsay and Swiss singer Regula Curti called Beyond.[263][264]