Born into a family of livestock breeders in Inner Mongolia, China, on the Ordos Plateau. In Hohhot, she studied yangqin with a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory. At the age of 18, she went to study at the Shanghai Conservatory, only there did she learn Chinese. Later, she began a musical career, went to Germany (married zither musician Robert Colich), and began giving concerts all over the world. In 2003, she was awarded the German RUTH Prize as the best international performer. In 2009, Mongolian director Byambasuren Dava made the film Two Horses of Genghis Khan about Urna's determination to find the origins of the Mongolian epic "The Two White Horses of Genghis Khan".
