Tibetan monks will construct a sand mandala in the Skylight Lounge in the Union starting at 11 a.m. Tuesday. People interested in learning how sand painting works are invited to take part in the community sand painting that will take place as part of the MLK days of dialogue.
The University of Wyoming campus will be home to Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monestary during the Martin Luther King Days of Dialog celebration.
During their visit, the monks will construct a sand mandala painting in the Skylight Lounge. The opening ceremony for the painting will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Skylight Lounge in the Union.
Dr. Antionette DeNapoli, assistant professor of religious studies, said sand mandalas have been around since the seventh century. “They are a ritual form of worship that is characteristic of, but not exclusive to vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhism,” DeNapoli said.
“When you’re constructing a mandala, you are constructing the world,” she said. “It is a representation of the cosmos and its creation creates that cosmos in a specific place at a specific time,” she said.
These sand mandalas can take anywhere from a week to a year to create, depending on the purpose.
After drawing a general layout in chalk on the board the mandala will be created on, the real work begins. The monks use special funnels to carefully place the sand in a specific design. The reason the mandala is being constructed dictates the design.
DeNapoli said there must be an intention or “sankalpa” before the mandala is created. The sankalpa is the beginning of the building of power that takes place as the mandala is being created.
Mandalas can be created for many different reasons — healing, for example. “Each mandala is unique because the intention behind it is unique,” DeNapoli said.
During the process of creating the mandalas, the monks will chant—sometimes quietly to themselves, sometimes out loud — mantras of the chosen deity. By reciting the mantras, the monks are calling down the gods asking them to be a temporary honored guest, DeNapoli said. At the end of the ritual, they must be released and allowed to return to wherever they reside permanently.
Mistakes in sand painting are not disastrous. If a monk makes a mistake, whether it is placing the sand in the wrong spot or reciting the wrong mantra, he simply removes the mistake and starts that part over, DeNapoli said.
The closing ceremony for the sand painting will be 2 p.m. Friday in the lower level of the Union. During the closing ceremony, the monks sweep up and gather all the sand. Half is dispersed among the crowd that is gathered for the ceremony and the other half is released into a natural source of running water.
Witnessing the construction of a beautiful, although temporary, piece of art is not simply something for passersby to enjoy. They get to experience how small the world is. “It’s not a far away religion,” DeNapoli said. “It becomes familiar. More understandable.”
People interested in learning how sand painting works are invited to take part in the community sand painting that will also be also be happening during the week.
