Tibetan Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery visited the LBJ Student Center on the Texas State University campus Monday. They performed an ancient opening ceremony before beginning a Mandala – painting with colored sand. They will finish, and then destroy the art on Feb. 1. (Photo by Stephanie Farley)
by KIM HILSENEBCK
Tibetan Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery visited the LBJ Student Center on Monday as part of the Common Experience event in conjunction with the San Marcos Public Library. The monks performed an ancient opening ceremony before beginning a Mandala sand painting.
Painting with colored sand ranks as one of the most unique and exquisite artistic traditions of Tantric Buddhism. Millions of grains of sand are painstakingly laid into place on a flat platform over a period of days or weeks.
This sacred work of art will be destroyed on Feb. 1 as a metaphor of the impermanence of life. The monks will lead a procession to Sewell Park to offer some of the sacred sand to the San Marcos River.
