Tibetan Lamas Bring Mandala Sand Painting to Reid Campus Center
WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Eleven visiting Tibetan lamas have brought the mystical art of mandala sand painting to the Whitman College campus.
To construct a mandala, millions of grains of colored sand are painstakingly laid into place on a flat platform over a period of days or weeks.
When completed, the mandala is destroyed to symbolize impermanence and the colored sands are poured into a nearby river where the waters are to carry healing energies throughout the world.
The monks began constructing a mandala at Whitman in the Reid Campus Center on Wednesday, March 5. The closing ritual will be at 4:30 p.m. on March 7. In addition, the monks are presenting two public lectures, both of which will last approximately one hour and will give the basic Buddhist views on the subject, followed by a question and answer period.
On Tuesday, a lecture titled "Tibet Today: The History of a Diaspora" was given in the Reid Campus Center Coffeehouse. The lecture focused on the contemporary Tibet situation: the invasion by Communist China in the 1950s, the efforts of the refugees in exile to preserve their civilization, and the situation in occupied Tibet.
On Thursday, March 6, at 8:30 p.m. in Reid Campus Center Coffeehouse, "The Symbolism of the Sand Mandala" will be presented. This lecture will focus on the mandala as a sacred cosmogram used as an object of contemplation. As described by the lamas, the mandala depicts the pure nature of the world and how one can live most effectively.
This visit from the Tibetan monks is sponsored by Whitman's CAB and ASWC Student Activities. The monks are members of the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Tibet. On previous tours through North America, the lamas have constructed sand paintings in settings as diverse as the Smithsonian, the CNN Center in Atlanta, the Children's Festival in Seattle and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston.
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