Davina Delor was born in France in 1952. In her formative years in Haims, a commune in the Vienne department in the Poitou-Charentes region of western France, under the guidance of her mother, she was provided a Parisian Catholic religious education, and studied yoga and Hindu dance forms from India in addition to classical and contemporary dance.
After ordination, she changed her name to Gelek Drolkar. Together with her friend Veronique de Villele, she presented a popular television show titled Gym Tonic from 1981 to 1987, viewed by millions, and the two were known by their first names as les filles (the girls). Concurrent with her career, she pursued studies in traditional Chinese medicine under the direction of Doctor Trinh Quan Ngoc and became a certified acupuncturist at the Asian Acupuncture Centre in Paris.
She did research in psychopathology and graduated from the College of Health-Medicine and Human Biology of Paris XIII with a degree in alcoholism and drug addiction.
Delor experienced personal tragedies. She is supported in this activity by three other nuns.
She also built a stupa in the precincts of her 2 hectares (49 acres) estate.
