Tibetan Mandala

Broad detail of the completed Mandala showing the three-dimensional relief.

Typically a sand mandala will have four monks working on it at any given time, one per side. If the mandala is very large, monks work in alternating teams of four.

In Tibetan language, the name of this detailed art is "dul-tson-kyil-khor", which means "mandala of colored powders."

Color is an fundamental part of a mandala because it expresses the deepest emotions, thoughts, perceptions, and feelings of the creators.

Closer detail of the completed Mandala showing the three-dimensional relief.

Closer detail of the completed Mandala showing the three-dimensional relief.

Broad detail of the completed mandala.

The Tibetan word for mandala is kilkhor, which means “the center of the circle with exterior walls and surrounding environment.”

Closer detail of the completed Mandala showing the three-dimensional relief.

Closer detail of the completed Mandala showing the three-dimensional relief.

The mandala is given the last touches with careful detail and precision.

Completed sand mandala seen from above. It is approximately five feet in diameter. It took the monks 5 days to complete it.

The rag-dung is a Tibetan ritual wooden instrument made in sections that can be telescoped. This version measures about 60" in length and it usually accompanies the chanting of mantras.

The monks bring the creation of the mandala to a close with a consecration ceremony.

Before the mandala sand painting creation even starts, the monks sanctify the site with approximately 30 minutes of mantra recitation, music, and chants.

During the mantra recitations, the “first voice”—a low, throaty voice, usually a drone, leads the melody of the song. It goes together with the harmony of a “second voice” produced by contorting the lips, tongue, soft palate and throat muscles.

According to some, the dissolution stage of the mandala is "something like making sure the lights are off and the doors are closed before you leave the house."

During the closing ceremony, the monks take apart the mandala, brushing off the colored sand to symbolize the transience of all that exists.

The sparkling colored design becomes mundane, regular sand again.

A sand mandala is given life and as such has its moment of existence like all living beings. And like all living beings it passes, returning to its origins.

After a chanted mantra, the colored sands are ceremonially poured to diffuse the healing energies of the mandala all over the world, returned to the eternal cycle of the universe.