Monks painstakingly create sand mandala

CHAPEL HILL Tenzin Dhargye, clad in maroon robes and wearing a dust mask, sat cross-legged on a cushion beside a blue felt panel on the floor of the east gallery at 523 E. Franklin St., the former home of the Chapel Hill Museum.

He dipped the wider end of a chakpur, a long, narrow metal funnel, into a small tub of very fine, pale yellow sand. Dhargye leaned deeply forward, resting his forearms on a small pillow, until his face was just inches from the surface of the panel.

He positioned the narrow tip of the tool close to the blue felt panel and rapidly and delicately scraped its finely ridged surface with another chakpur, producing just enough vibration to cause a minute stream of sand to trickle out. He made a tiny dot of sand on the panel, then another and another.

Two other Tibetan Buddhist monks, Dawa Tashi and Geshe Kalsang, worked in similar fashion, and with similar concentration, on other portions of the panel. Their chakpurs chimed with the vibrations; together, they sounded a lot like the cicadas that have been chirring in the Triangle for the past month.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/05/28/2333163/they-go-with-the-grains.html

once a year. Its an amazing process. They have such amazing patients to be able to do that, but I guess thats one of the things they train pretty much their whole lives for.

Highly recommended if you ever get a chance to see it. :thumbsup:

great art from religion in which the meaning is not necessary for the viewers enjoyment and appreciation.